Shearer hit the nail on the head with his snap verdict after Newcastle’s 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa
Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer(Image: Newcastle United via Getty Images)
It was hard not to leave St James’ Park after Newcastle’s 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa feeling a little bit deflated.
Not necessarily with the manner of Newcastle’s performance but more the way in which they were beaten by a direct rival whose performances have always been used as a yardstick with which to compare the club’s progress against.
For the last three years, both Newcastle and Aston Villa have been neck and neck in their pursuit to disrupt the Premier League’s big six.
Their progress against each other has been toing and froing in that time but Newcastle were left in doubt on Sunday as to which team currently holds the superiority in that debate.
Goals from Emi Buendia and Ollie Watkins proved to be the difference on the day but Villa looked fresher, more energetic and had more ideas and looked every bit the team that are third in the table and and outside bet to win the Premier League title this season.
Newcastle looked every bit the team in transition and who have struggled for any kind of consistency this season and their situation up front goes a long way towards explaining that.
Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade cost a combined £124million in the summer but neither of Newcastle’s front men have scored a Premier League goal in 2026.
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Wissa cut an isolated figure up front against Villa and when he did get the ball he struggled to do anything meaningful with it. He was starved of any service, too, and Newcastle’s lack of a threat up front caught the ire of the club’s record goalscorer Alan Shearer.
“[Aston] Villa [are] a really good side but we again [have] been awful up top,” the former England and Newcastle captain posted on X.
When Shearer talks, Newcastle fans listen and I am sure he would have had some envious glances at the way in which Villa swarmed bodies around Wissa’s opposite number, Watkins, during the Villa loss.
Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy highlighted the fact that while Newcastle’s wingers Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes stayed very firmly out wide, Aston Villa’s wingers almost played as hybrid number 10s, meaning they almost had three players in Buendia, Jadon Sancho and Morgan Rogers buzzing around Watkins at all times.
Ollie Watkins scored Aston Villa’s second at Newcastle(Image: Getty Images)
Watkins managed to stretch Newcastle’s defence which created even more gaps for Villa’s playmakers to exploit. We saw none of that at the other end from United.
Newcastle’s wingers being so wide can be effective but then you need the midfielders to get up and support Wissa and there wasn’t enough of that on the day, or throughout the season in truth.
Eddie Howe is a known admirer of Watkins and there had to be a degree of envy to see an opposition frontline be so structured as Newcastle’s continue to evolve.
There were no winners in the Alexander Isak transfer saga. Isak hasn’t hit the ground running at Liverpool and Newcastle have struggled to adapt to his absence, at least consistently.
Wissa and Woltemade have shown enough to suggest they are talented enough to lead the line and Woltemade’s nine-goal haul before his mid-season slump is certainly reason to be positive.
But while Shearer’s verdict may have been cutting, it was also a brutal reminder of the current reality of their situation compared to Aston Villa’s. And that is a sobering realisation.
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