Unai Emery plays down title talk after Aston Villa’s impressive win at Newcastle

By Damian Spellman, Press Association

Unai Emery will only consider Aston Villa as Premier League title contenders if they are still in the mix with three games to go.

Villa cemented themselves in third place, level on points with Manchester City, with a hard-fought 2-0 win at Newcastle on Sunday – a first at St James’ Park since April 2005 – but Emery, who insisted they were not top-five contenders after last weekend’s 1-0 home defeat by Everton, was refusing to be carried away.

He said: “Next week we are playing against Brentford at home. Last week we lost and last week, no-one asked me about contenders for the title. We lost against Everton, ‘No, not now’; and we are winning today, ‘Yes now’.

“Okay, calm. Keep balance is the only objective I have in my mind, and the only way I know is work every day and if you are performing consistently, maybe you can better and maybe on day 35, we can speak differently.

“Of course, we are competing against Arsenal, we are competing against Manchester City, we are competing against Chelsea, we are competing against Liverpool, we are competing against Newcastle, against Tottenham…Wow, the power they have.

“But we are competing and we are there, We are getting points.”

Villa, who have won six and drawn three of their 12 away league games, went ahead in style when Newcastle backed off and allowed Emi Buendia to pick his spot with a stunning dipping strike which gave goalkeeper Nick Pope no chance.

The Magpies, who had earlier seen Emi Martinez deny Sandro Tonali inside the first minute, would have been level had the keeper not clawed Lewis Miley’s header out of his top corner just before half-time, and although they piled on the pressure after the break, they were caught again at the death by Ollie Watkins.

Emery, who will now turn his attention to Thursday night’s Europa League clash with RB Salzburg after revealing midfielder John McGinn could face up to two months on the sidelines with a knee injury, said: “A long time, we were not winning and my experience with Aston Villa here last year was horrible.

“We are so, so happy, so proud of the work we did because after we lost against Everton, we needed to react like we did on Thursday. Firstly – it was very important on Thursday against Fenerbahce – and today.”

Opposite number Eddie Howe, whose side is still yet to win a league game in the absence of skipper Bruno Guimaraes since his arrival in January 2022, said: “I’m mixed on our performance because I thought it was okay.

“There was a lot of good bits in there, some good individual performances, but ultimately we’ve lost the game 2-0 at home.”

Howe now faces an anxious wait to see whether Guimaraes, who missed out with an ankle injury, and Joelinton, who limped off with a groin problem, are fit for Wednesday night’s crucial Champions League trip to Paris St Germain.

He said: “With him (Joelinton) and Bruno missing, that’s a double blow for us.”