Aston Villa v Newcastle United Betting Tip

Two clubs recently-relegated from the Premier League do battle on Saturday evening. Obviously both of these sides are looking to make an immediate return to the promised land with many people arguing that these two clubs are some of the biggest in Europe, never mind England. However, whilst Newcastle have had a decent start and sit third, Villa look incredibly poor and are down in 18th.

An interesting fact about this match is it sees the two former Champions League winning managers of the Championship, Roberto Di Matteo and Rafael Benitez, go head-to-head.

With a new owner, new manager and several new faces on the playing staff, Aston Villa fans had a number of reasons to be optimistic for the coming Championship season. However, those hopes have quickly fallen by the wayside with Villa looking out of ideas on the pitch despite spending a ridiculous amount of money this summer.

Fans are now questioning whether former Chelsea boss Di Matteo is the right man for the job as his side have not won since beating Rotherham United 3-0 over a month ago. The Lions have failed to pick up a win in the following six matches and added just five to their points tally.

Villa have been ahead and looked like doing a good job in a few games, only to concede last minute equalisers such as against Brentford and Nottingham Forest. It almost seems that a bit of last season’s lack of fight has crept into this season’s Villa side.

The only bright spot you would say is that they have only lost once in their last six matches. However, the amount of draws and lack of ideas is unacceptable for a club with such high standards.

Having never managed in the Championship before, Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez tried to get his side playing a more exotic style of football. However, after losing the opening two matches playing in this manner, the Spaniard changed tact and went for a more dogged approach. This new style immediately worked wonders with the Toon Army launching themselves towards the top of the Championship table with five consecutive wins and four clean sheets in a row.

This rather dramatic turnaround was stopped in its tracks last weekend when Newcastle lost 2-0 at home to struggling Wolverhampton Wanderers. This result clearly did not knock the confidence and Benitez’s team came out 2-0 winners in the repeat fixture in the EFL League Cup on Tuesday night, despite a much-changed line-up.

You would imagine that Newcastle will be confident of getting the league form back on track with a visit to a quite toxic Villa Park on Saturday evening.

The only thing you would say in Villa’s favour is that they have scored in every home game this season, however, I just feel that the bad atmosphere at the ground, with many fans turning on their new manager, really stands against the Villains for this match against Newcastle.

I just can’t see this Villa side, who’re lacking in confidence and ideas, being able to match up to a Toon side who are the exact opposite, even if they are at home. So with this in mind I would advise punters to go with a Newcastle United win at 19/12. Although the bookies have made Newcastle the favourites, I am surprised that the odds are as good as this and would definitely take advantage.

See all of Saturday’s tips here.