Three of the four Gameweek 33 ‘doublers’ were in action on Saturday.
Having already run the rule over two of them, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, the Scout Notes switches attention to Aston Villa.
THOROUGHLY DESERVED VICTORY FOR VILLA
Despite these sides being fairly well matched on paper, meetings between the two clubs have strangely tended to be one-sided affairs.
Newcastle have won the last three on Tyneside by a combined 12-1 scoreline and triumphed 3-1 at Villa Park last season. The Villans have won 3-0 and 4-1 in the other two of the last three meetings in Birmingham.
This latest resounding victory, for Unai Emery’s side, was fully deserved. While deflections assisted two of Villa’s goals, one of them a Dan Burn (£4.5m) own-goal, the hosts could have found the net on other/further occasions.
Villa hit the woodwork three times, Marco Asensio (£6.2m) airswiped with the goal gaping and John McGinn (£5.2m) and Morgan Rogers (£5.7m) missed great chances when clean through.
No club had more shots (23) than Villa on Saturday.
“FUMING” WATKINS STATES HIS CASE
Ollie Watkins has now scored 15+ goals in each of his last three Premier League campaigns:
2022/23 – 15 goals, 6 assists
2023/24 – 19 goals, 13 assists
2024/25 – 15 goals, 6 assistsConsistent. 💪 pic.twitter.com/onF8l9UuWB
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 19, 2025
Spearheading the assault on Newcastle was Ollie Watkins (£8.9m). Scoring a deflected opening in the first minute and teeing up Ian Maatsen (£4.5m) for Villa’s second, the striker also hit the frame of the goal on two occasions.
Watkins had only started one of the last six games in all competitions for Villa. He wasn’t an easy buy for Gameweek 33 but over 340,000 managers took the plunge, having their faith instantly repaid in style.
Watkins seemed to be playing with a fire in his belly – and no wonder after recent omissions.
“I played 20 minutes against PSG in both games. I am not going to lie, I was fuming that I wasn’t playing from the start – and I let him [Unai Emery] know that.
“He’s the manager, at the end of the day, and you have to respect his decision. But I am not one of those players who are happy to sit on the bench. It’s something I have not experienced before, to miss out on the biggest stage.
“The three or four signings we made in January, players like Rashford and Asensio coming in and their quality, means players like myself sometimes have to drop to the bench and there’s going to be lots of rotation.
“But the manager is going to have a headache as I’m banging on the door asking why I’m not playing.” – Ollie Watkins
He could, of course, be back down among the substitutes on Tuesday. Marcus Rashford (£6.7m), assuming the new nuisance positional rival role that Jhon Duran used to have, was limited to a late cameo. If it’s fresh legs Emery desires at the Etihad (and he doesn’t always, as seen in his recent overuse of Rashford), the on-loan attacker can offer them.
The constantly shifting cast means second-guessing where the next Villa haul is coming from is tricky. Watkins, Donyell Malen (£5.3m), Asensio and Rogers had all been the top-scoring Villa attacker in the previous five league matches.
Two line-up mainstays, Youri Tielemans (£5.5m) and Rogers, at least kept up their records of not being benched in the league in 2024/25. Both grabbed assists, with the former delivering an attacking return for the fifth straight game.
You can see why Emery keeps starting them. The pair are often a cut above everyone on the pitch, Tielemans with his superb distribution and Rogers with his Gascoigne-like ability when driving with the ball.
Maatsen meanwhile has had eight shots since his current run in the starting XI began in Gameweek 31. No defender has had more in that time. Again, though, bench duty could very easily beckon in midweek.
OFF-DAY FOR THE MAGPIES
Newcastle had previously suffered a purple-patch-busting 4-1 defeat in Gameweek 22, and lightning struck twice on Saturday.
After the last winning run was brought to an abrupt halt by Bournemouth, the predictable excuse was fatigue.
Jason Tindall used the same extenuating circumstances at Villa Park, after keeping an unchanged team for the seventh straight match in all competitions.
“When the team’s performing so well and the individuals within the team are performing really well, you know, it is difficult [to make changes]. The team had the momentum, they had the confidence going into the game. In the first half, we came in level but probably the second half, maybe physically was one step too far for the guys just to get themselves over the line.” – Jason Tindall
Pretty much everyone had an off-day, with Alexander Isak (£9.5m) barely getting a sniff and Jacob Murphy (£5.2m) hooked early after his own stinker.
Harvey Barnes (£5.9m) at least extended his blank-less run to six with an assist for Fabian Schar (£5.5m).
No need to panic or overreact, as a welcome week’s break now follows. It’s also Ipswich Town at home next, providing an ideal opportunity to bounce back to winning ways. Free Hitting or otherwise, most of us will have Newcastle triple-ups in Gameweek 34.
You’d also think that most/all of the starting XI have enough credit in the bank to stave off the challenge of Anthony Gordon (£7.4m) and co for now.
29 days, 12 hours agoSA(K)A