Newcastle 1-1 Aston Villa
Going into this match it was clear that pressure was starting to build on Aston Villa and their new manager Paul Lambert. They had played two games losing both of them (1-0 to West Ham and 3-1 to Everton) and it seemed likely that a visit to St James' Park wasn't going to help them get off the bottom of the league table.
Surprisingly Villa made a great start to the game and didn't come out like a team who were low on confidence instead they bossed early sections of the match. It was whilst bossing the game that Villa took the lead via a Ciaran Clark header as he met Barry Bannan's excellent cross to break the deadlock. Villa had come very close just minutes earlier with Tim Krul forced to make a great save from Darren Bent and going into the half Villa certainly deserved their lead.
As we know from last season Newcastle are not an easy team to beat, especially at home (they lost just 3 of 19 matches there last year) and they showed their fighting spirit in the second half. With the likes of Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse the home side really are a tough team to defend against and they each came close before the mercurial Frenchman Hatem Ben Arfa equalised just quarter of an hour into the second half. Ben Arfa, a genuinely world class player showed why many rate him so highly as he made space outside the Villa penalty area and struck a thunderbolt past Brad Guzan in the Villa goal.
The match ended with a spate of yellow cards for Villa as Newcastle tried to secure 3 points and put the visitors under pressure with Eric Lichaj, Brad Guzan and Brett Holman all being shown yellows however the visitors managed to hold on for a point.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew will have expected 3 points here against a struggling Villa however he will feel really relieved at actually getting a point, despite the late pressure by his team. Hatem Ban Arfa's goal again showed his class and the reason why so many in football rate the Frenchman so highly however Pardew may be concerned that his forwards haven't been managing to score so far with only 1 goal between Cisse and Ba in their first 3 Premier League games of the season.
Villa may have felt that their opening half display should have bagged them their first win of the season however they should be happy at not only picking up their first point of the season but doing it at a fortress like St James' Park. Though Paul Lambert still needs to be really concerned even though his team are finally off the mark. His attacking force looks really poor with Darren Bent yet to score this season they will struggle for goals until Bent finds his feet. At the back Villa were tough today but again they don't look solid and they will really struggle throughout the season.
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