Aston Villa verdict: Substance and style combine for impressive Newcastle win

More precision in the final third might have made Saturday’s evening’s scoreline at Newcastle similarly eye-catching to the one against Fenerbahce which preceded it less than 72 hours earlier.

The fact it didn’t and that Unai Emery’s men had to grind out their deserved 1-0 victory, is likely to prove more beneficial in the long run than any 6-0 thrashing.

You already knew Emery’s rebuilt team had the capability to score plenty of goals.

You weren’t quite convinced about their ability to keep them out when the going got tough, an essential requirement in squeezing out the kind of results which can so often be the difference between a fourth and ninth-placed finish come May.

Just a second clean sheet of the Premier League campaign, therefore felt like another big step forward for an evolving unit who is giving you more cause for optimism with each passing match.

Villa had conceded two goals in each of their previous three top flight matches and even in the midweek Champions League romp had allowed a few too many big chances for comfort.

Here, goalkeeper Zion Suzuki was forced into just one serious save and even that came from nothing, a speculative but decent swing of the boot from Sven Botman which sent the Japan international flying across his goal.

True, the shutout came against a Newcastle side currently struggling for inspiration in the final third.

So desperate did their head coach, Matthias Jaissle, become his final act on Saturday was to send on towering defender Dan Burn to play a centre-forward.

Yet Villa also had to overcome the kind of adversity which you suspect, only a month ago, would have knocked them off course.

When Aaron Wan-Bissaka became the third player in the last six matches to suffer injury while playing in the apparently cursed position of left-back, Tyrone Mings found himself playing out wide for the first time in a decade.

Mings, who had come in for criticism following a costly error in the rather chaotic 2-2 draw with Brentford a week earlier, was among the unsung heroes at St James’s Park, barely putting a boot wrong while in the more familiar role of centre-back and then ad libbing with just enough conviction at full-back in the closing stages.

Alongside him, meanwhile, Victor Lindelof was close to imperious. For much of the evening, it felt as though every Newcastle cross from the left wing was being laser guided onto either the boot or the head of the Sweden international.

Much has been written about Villa’s rather inconsistent recruitment record during Emery’s reign but you can’t quibble with their ability to spot a decent free transfer. After Youri Tielemans, Lindelof is well on the way to being categorised as another excellent bargain deal, the manner in which he has stepped up this season being even more vital following the loss of Ezri Konsa.

Villa’s issue has been finding hits with some of their larger outlays in the market but Saturday provided more encouragement around last summer’s big spend.

The headlines were taken by Johan Manzambi, a player who not only scores and creates goals but - like the very best - appears to write his own scripts.

So confident were Newcastle the Switzerland international was heading their way in July they were happy to brief journalists as much.

Instead, Manzambi ended up at Villa and here he was in the 36th minute on Saturday, all alone to head home Joao Gomes’ cross for the only goal of the evening.

It was the 21-year-old’s third goal in four Villa starts, while he has also created two more. Early days in his career it might be, yet that £51million is already looking like money well spent.

Perhaps most encouraging is the understanding Manzambi has quickly established with Nicolas Jackson. Dare it be said, there are definite echoes of the Morgan Rogers-Ollie Watkins axis which proved so crucial over the previous two seasons.

Twice in the first half Manzambi found Jackson in space. The Senegal international, who had earlier shot straight at Magpies keeper Lukas Hornicek when through on goal, was unable to extend his own scoring streak to four matches but this was another impressive all-round performance at centre-forward.

In Ibrahim Mbaye, meanwhile, Villa have the perfect player to bring on against tiring opposition.

On Saturday, the 18-year-old really should have ended any doubt about the result with either better finishing or decision-making. Yet his potential, once his football brain inevitably catches up with his feet, is pretty frightening.

After winning just one of their first six matches, Villa have now won four of the last five in all competitions and are up to 12th in the league, just four points behind fifth-placed Liverpool.

It’s one match at a time, as is always the case with Emery. But from here, you suspect the general direction will only be up.