Stat Attack: All you need to know about Aston Villa 2-0 Newcastle

Aston Villa earned their first win of the 2021-22 Premier League season against former manager Steve Bruce’s Newcastle.

It was the visitors who had the better of the early running at Villa Park, Callum Wilson dragged his fifth minute effort wide when through one-on-one with Emiliano Martinez.

Danny Ings made the Magpies pay when he scored his second goal in as many matches with a sensational overhead kick in first-half stoppage time.

Anwar El-Ghazi doubled the hosts’ lead just past the hour mark from the penalty spot after Jamaal Lascelles handled in the area.

Matt Ritchie and Wilson both squandered opportunities before VAR overturned a golden opportunity for Newcastle to get back in it.

Newcastle had been awarded a penalty of their own for a foul on Wilson, but upon closer inspection, the Magpies No9 was offside in the build-up.

Villa would go on to claim their first points of the campaign, but Steve Bruce was left to go on a post-match tirade about the decisions that he felt cost his side.

He said: "The big decisions went against us. 

"With the offside decision, I didn’t think we were looking at lines for armpits any more.

"No one in the ground thought that was handball (for Aston Villa's penalty), Lascelles’s foot is above his head so if your foot is above your head, you’ve got to put your hands up.

"I thought we were erring on the side of the attacker and (Wilson is) offside by, what, a big toe? 

"So I’m really frustrated with that and the handball."

Did you know?

Aston Villa have found the net in 11 of their last 12 Premier League games, after drawing a blank in three of the four before that.

Newcastle have only won two of their last 19 Premier League fixtures in August (D6 L11), victories against West Ham at home in 2017 and Tottenham away in 2019.

Since Aston Villa’s 2019 return to the top flight, Anwar El Ghazi (15) has scored more league goals for the club than any other player.

Danny Ings is just the fourth player to score in his first two league appearances for the Villans, after Dalian Atkinson in 1992, Dion Dublin in 1998 and Ross Barkley in 2020.

Since the start of the 2020-21 campaign, only Ederson (20) and Edouard Mendy (17) have kept more Premier League clean sheets than Emiliano Martinez (16).