Newcastle United laid down an early marker for the 2023-24 Premier League season with a scintillating 5-1 win over Aston Villa at St James’ Park.
Alexander Isak’s brace, Callum Wilson’s effort and debut goals for Harvey Barnes and Sandro Tonali capped off a near-perfect afternoon for the Magpies, who had been pegged back by a Moussa Diaby strike before carving their visitors open at will to record their biggest opening-day victory in the Premier League.
The summer signings were well and truly making their mark at St James’ Park on Saturday evening, and it took just six minutes for Newcastle new boy Tonali to open his Magpies account.
Anthony Gordon’s floated cross from the left-hand side flew over several Villa heads, and as Tyrone Mings was pre-occupied with keeping a close eye on Isak, Tonali arrived unchallenged to fire home from close range.
The Italian’s dream debut nearly got even better in the eighth minute as he found himself one-on-one with Emiliano Martinez, but the Villa goalkeeper made himself big and managed to divert Tonali’s strike just round his near post.
Unai Emery’s side were under the cosh and then some, but the Lions restored parity against the run of play in the 11th minute, as Lucas Digne’s cross from the left was deflected on to Ollie Watkins, who headed the ball on for an unmarked Diaby to level the scores with a well-taken half-volley on his maiden English top-flight appearance.
A new record was set upon Diaby’s fine finish, as his goal marked the quickest time that two players had scored on their Premier League debuts, but Villa’s smiles soon turned to frowns as the chaotic start continued.
More lackadaisical defending was to blame, as Sven Botman beat the Villa offside trap from a free kick, and the Dutch defender stuck out a leg to direct the ball into the path of Isak, who made no mistake from close range in the 16th minute.
A third debutant would soon emerge, but Pau Torres’s introduction was forced upon Emery as Mings went down with a serious-looking injury just before the half-hour mark, and play was halted for several minutes while the Englishman was loaded onto a stretcher.
Both sets of supporters gave Mings a standing ovation as the stricken centre-back was carried off the field, and his injury led to a more muted atmosphere within St James’ Park, although the home crowd were up in arms towards the end of a 10-minute injury-time period.
Martinez ventured out of his area to challenge Miguel Almiron on the left-hand side, and the Paraguayan beat his South American counterpart to the ball, forcing Martinez to bring him down before Andy Madley brandished a yellow card – much to the Magpies’ chagrin.
The Newcastle faithful were in full voice once more in the 58th minute, though, as a horrible error from Ezri Konsa saw the Villa man robbed of the ball by Isak inside his own box, and the Swedish striker delicately lifted the ball over Martinez for his second of the afternoon.
Isak had a golden chance to wrap up an opening-day hat-trick on the hour mark as Almiron slipped him through, but he was denied by the feet of Martinez, and the end-to-end action was showing no signs of letting up.
Just four minutes after Martinez’s save from Isak, Nick Pope parried a Watkins strike into the path of the onrushing Matty Cash, but the right-back could only fire over the crossbar with the goal at his mercy.
Isak would be denied a hat-trick as Wilson came on for the final quarter, and the Englishman picked up where his teammate left off, increasing Newcastle’s tally to four with a calm finish from Barnes’s ball across, thereby scoring for the fourth opening weekend in a row.
Only the legs of Martinez denied Wilson a carbon copy of his first goal in the 81st minute, before Watkins cleared Joelinton’s header off the line from the resulting corner, as Emery’s side were subjected to a Newcastle onslaught in the dying embers.
The Villa high line was proving fatal for Emery’s side, and in the first of five added minutes, Barnes went from provider to goalscorer, racing beyond the Lions’ disorganised defence and calmly picking out the bottom corner.
Newcastle’s crushing win acts as an ideal warm-up for their trip to champions Manchester City next weekend, while a dejected Villa return to the West Midlands to tackle Everton in eight days’ time.
