Aston Villa beat Newcastle as Johan Manzambi scores

Match winning header

Aston Villa secured a 1-0 victory against Newcastle at St James' Park thanks to a goal from Johan Manzambi. The Switzerland midfielder came close to joining Newcastle in the summer before moving to Villa instead. João Gomes crossed the ball into the box in the 36th minute, allowing Manzambi to head past Lukáš Horníček.

This marks Manzambi's second Premier League goal of the campaign. It follows his goal just three days prior in Villa's 6-0 win against Fenerbahçe in the Champions League. Unai Emery spoke about the player after the match and stated he is a good professional who loves football with passion. Emery added that Manzambi chose to join them because he understood he can progress here.

The result lifts Aston Villa into 12th place in the table and stretches their unbeaten run across all competitions to five games. Emery noted that playing at Newcastle is a difficult scenario to achieve points, praising his team's tactical and defensive performance.

This victory also marked Emery's 100th win in the Premier League from his time managing Arsenal and Villa. Speaking on the milestone, Emery said he hopes to play another 100 and win, though acknowledging that in football you are either winning or you are not.

Newcastle left frustrated

Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle expressed his frustrations after his side slipped to back-to-back Premier League defeats. The home side enjoyed most of the possession and created second-half chances through Sven Botman and Yoane Wissa, but failed to find the target.

Jaissle stated that the team was frustrated with the result and wanted to give their fans a better outcome at home. He noted that they controlled the game until conceding the first goal, after which the team was a bit shaken.

He added that the energy returned in the second half as they pushed for a draw or a win, but they lacked efficiency in the opposition box. Jaissle admitted that their decision making in the final third was not good enough to create more chances or score from the opportunities they had.