Aston Villa’s classy response to ‘what Newcastle United are doing’ under owners

Aston Villa interim manager Aaron Danks expressed his respect for Newcastle United.
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Aaron Danks hopes Aston Villa can emulate Newcastle United’s meteoric rise under Unai Emery. Danks’ final game as interim boss ended in a 4-0 defeat to Newcastle United as Emery prepares to take charge early next week.

Villa sacked Steven Gerrard after sitting 17th in the top-flight table with just two wins from their opening 11 matches. Similar to the Magpies, the Midlands club have ambitions to compete for the European spots and have backed former Arsenal boss Emery to get them there.

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Newcastle, in just over 12 months since the PIF-led takeover, have gone from Premier League relegation candidates to European contenders under Eddie Howe after their fifth win in six games maintained fourth position in the table.

Danks, following the visit to St James’ Park says he has “a lot of respect” for Newcastle’s project, and hopes Villa can follow suit. He said: “I look at this club with a lot of respect for what they’re doing, All around the building, I see lots of good people working and pushing and striving to get Newcastle where they want to be and we’re no different to that. We want that and we want to turn that corner.”

Callum Wilson opened the scoring from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time before adding a second after the break. Joelinton made it 3-0, while Miguel Almiron his seventh goal of the campaign to round off the afternoon.

“It was a difficult day,” Danks said. “It ends up being a very disappointing result. We all feel that in the dressing room. We all feel that for the supporters who have travelled a long way and back us. I thought we did OK in the first half, I thought we were competitive and it was an even game. We created some good moments and got into some good positions, as they did to us. The penalty changes your half-time team talk. What we spoke about at half-time was trying to win the second-half.

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“We knew at some point there was going to be a spell of momentum that they would have and that came instantly after half-time. They were really ruthless and clinical in those moments. You have to find ways of staying the game when momentum goes against you and unfortunately the game got away from us.”