Eddie Howe surprisingly agrees with Alan Shearer over Newcastle United vs Aston Villa incident

Anthony Gordon opened the scoring just two minutes in before tempers flared when Duran was sent off for Villa for a stamp on Fabian Schar. Alexander Isak then added a second goal on the hour-mark as Joelinton netted a third in stoppage time.

United legend Alan Shearer said the sending off was “slightly harsh” and Howe agreed. Meanwhile, Villa manager Unai Emery was raging.

“I’ve seen it once and that was live, genuinely! I thought it was maybe harsh, that was my gut feeling,” said Howe. “I’m a little bit surprised the red card came out but someone with a better view will tell me their opinion I’m sure.”

There was a melee in the tunnel at half-time, resulting in assistant coach Jason Tindall and a Villa analyst also being shown a red card.

Asked why it was a heated affair, Howe said: “I think because of what is at stake for both that naturally then the will to win sometimes spills over. When you are competitive as we want to be and Aston Villa are, I think there are always going to be moments when that potentially goes over the line.

“We knew it was going to be a difficult game and we knew it’d be tight. I thought we started really well and what a goal from Anthony. The atmosphere in the stadium was electric but then it settled down and I thought it was tight, a really good game with 11 v 11.

“You could see their qualities but you could also see our qualities. The red card totally changes that it becomes about ‘can we get the second goal?’ and if and when we get it hopefully that kills the game. I thought our second half performance was really good, we got the second goal and from there it was a little bit more comfortable.”

Since losing to Brentford earlier this month, Newcastle have won four games on the belt and moved from 12th to 5th in the Premier League.