The first all-Premier-League clash of the FA Cup fourth round saw Newcastle United overcome 10-man Aston Villa on Saturday night.
Here, we pick out the main Fantasy talking points from Villa Park.
RESULT
| Home | Away | Result | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aston Villa | Newcastle United | 1-3 | Abraham | Tonali x2, Woltemade | Luiz | Burn |
SELECTION / ROTATION
| TEAM | CHANGES FROM GAMEWEEK 26 | PLAYERS WHO KEPT THEIR PLACES (+ MINS) | OTHER PLAYERS (+ MINS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aston Villa | 7 | Bogarde (90), Onana (90), Luiz (78), Rogers (77) | Lindelof (90), Torres (90), Digne (90), Barkley (65), Abraham (65), Bizot (45), Bailey (45), Martinez (45), Watkins (25), Buendia (25), Maatsen (13), Sancho (12) |
| Newcastle United | 6 | Trippier (90), Thiaw (90), Burn (90), Barnes (90), Ramsey (80) | Ramsdale (90), Hall (90), Woltemade (90), Tonali (90), J Murphy (63), Osula (63), Gordon (27), Elanga (27), Willock (10), A Murphy (1) |
HOWE ON BRUNO GUIMARAES’ INJURY
The reports were true, then: Bruno Guimaraes (£7.0m) looks set to be out until Gameweek 32 at the earliest.
“Yeah, that’ll be roughly correct. He’s got a serious hamstring injury. We’ll be missing him, we think, until the end of the international break in March.” – Eddie Howe on whether Bruno Guimaraes will be out for two months as reported
The lengthy March international break at least ensures Bruno won’t miss as many matches as he might have done but it’s still a huge blow for the Magpies, who often lack that spark without him.
They at least won without their influential Brazilian on Saturday – something they’ve never done in the Premier League since he arrived in 2022.
BOTMAN + WISSA ABSENCES EXPLAINED
Newcastle were also unexpectedly without Sven Botman (£4.9m) and Yoane Wissa (£7.3m) but their respective injuries sound relatively minor.
“Sven’s just felt his back slightly. We don’t think it is a serious problem but it was enough for him to miss today. I think we’ve got to be really cautious with his injury history.
“Yoane picked up a knock in training yesterday. Again, we don’t think it’s too serious but he might be out for a couple of games.” – Eddie Howe
As for rotation, Anthony Gordon (£7.2m) and Anthony Elanga (£6.5m) both got breathers ahead of likely recalls against Qarabag in midweek. What team Howe then sends out at the Etihad next weekend, a match sandwiched by that Champions League double-header, is another question.
WOLTEMADE IN MIDFIELD!
Is this the remaking of Joelinton (£5.9m) all over again? Howe made such a good job of reimaging the misfiring Brazilian into a combative midfielder that he might think he has the Midas touch in that department.
On Saturday, we saw Nick Woltemade (£6.9m) in a left-sided eight/10 role, with Will Osula (£5.4m) instead leading the line.
He stuck to his task well, doing the dirty work as well as exhibiting one of his undoubted strengths, ie excellent close control.
And, in what could be a big confidence boost for the German, he bagged his first goal of 2026 when pouncing on a late Villa error to make it 3-1.
Sandro Tonali (£5.3m), disappointing of late but good here, scored twice from the edge of the box to turn the tie around.
Again, how much we read into the result is debatable. Newcastle were ‘okay’ in the first half, with Harvey Barnes (£6.1m) going close, and possibly deserving of parity before the game-changing dismissal.
Like after the midweek win over a desperate Spurs, though, it’s premature to be hailing a return to form given the match circumstances.
MARCO. BIZOT.
The ‘Villan’ of the piece for the hosts was Marco Bizot (£4.2m), whose moment of madness saw him advance way out of goal and chop down Jacob Murphy (£6.2m) as Newcastle broke.
He’ll miss Gameweek 27 as a result, not that he would have started anyway.
Tammy Abraham (£6.0m), who was already eating into Ollie Watkins‘ (£8.6m) league minutes, started and bagged Villa’s opener, converting from a Douglas Luiz (£4.9m) free-kick.
It was offside – but with no VAR to be found in the cup, it stood. More officiating misery followed, with Lucas Digne (£4.5m) lucky not to see red for a reckless tackle in the first half and then unbelievably fortunate not to give away a penalty when referee Chris Kavanagh adjudged his handball to be outside the area.
Villa, initially, were fairly comfortable after their opener, happy to let Newcastle have the ball without the visitors creating loads. Bizot’s dismissal changed everything, of course, so we can’t read too much into the 3-1 scoreline.
Morgan Rogers (£7.6m) was reduced to mostly off-the-ball work as a result of Bizot’s mishap, although at least was spared for the final quarter of an hour or so.
