Aston Villa secured a fifth consecutive Premier League victory in style at Villa Park on Saturday night, with an emphatic 4-1 triumph over fellow top five hopefuls Newcastle United.
Ollie Watkins’ goal inside the opening 33 seconds gave Unai Emery’s men a perfect start to affairs, and drew the 29-year-old level with Gabby Agbonlahor at the top of Villa’s list of all-time Premier League goalscorers, before Fabian Schär’s header restored parity and sent the two sides in at the break level.
But a marvellous second-half performance from the home side saw them notch a further three unanswered goals to stretch their unbeaten run in B6 to 19 matches in all competitions, with wins in their last six of those games.
Ian Maatsen struck his first Premier League goal just after the hour, before substitutes Jacob Ramsey and Amadou Onana put the cherry on the cake, the former forcing an own goal from Dan Burn before the Belgian midfielder curled into the top corner two minutes later to make sure of an impressive three points.
The win signified the first time Villa had put together five straight victories in the league since April 2023, and came against a Newcastle side who had won eight of their last 10 away games – the third-best record in the league this season – ending their run of six successive wins in all competitions.
