Newcastle United suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Aston Villa on Monday night, with two free-kick goals in the opening 36 minutes enough to secure all three points for the hosts.
Steve Bruce’s side barely threatened Villa goalkeeper Tom Heaton despite registering 11 shots – five of which hit the target.
Newcastle have now lost six league games this term, but are still five points and four places above the relegation zone.
Magpies legend Alan Shearer wasn’t impressed with the visitors’ performance, reacting furiously in six words on Twitter immediately after the final whistle thus:
Goal threat = Zero. A poor night. @NUFC #AVNEW
— Alan Shearer (@alanshearer) November 25, 2019
Conor Hourihane opened the scoring with a deft free-kick in the 32nd minute, and Villa doubled their lead four minutes later courtesy of Anwar El Ghazi, thanks to some woeful defending from Newcastle.
Newcastle had just 38% of the possession and Bruce’s main plan was to hurt his former side on the counterattack.
However, the front trio of Allan Saint-Maximin, Joelinton and Miguel Almiron couldn’t make the most of the few chances they managed to carve out, and not even the trio of Andy Carroll, Dwight Gayle and Christian Atsu could make a difference when they came on.
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