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Newcastle fans send clear Ollie Watkins message in loss to Aston Villa as Alexander Isak beaten in battle of top strikers

Giuseppe Labellarte

Sat 19 April 2025 20:15, UK

Aston Villa hosted Newcastle United in Saturday’s late Premier League kick-off, a battle between two of the division’s top strikers.

Aston Villa have Ollie Watkins in their ranks, a player who has helped take the claret-and-blue side to the next level in recent years.

Meanwhile, Newcastle have Alexander Isak, who is joint-second in the Premier League scoring ranks, behind Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

However, Watkins’ Villa convincingly won the battle against Isak’s Newcastle, who were beaten 4-1 as the England international scored the opener and assisted the second.

Newcastle fans took to social media during and after the game to comment on Watkins’ display against the Magpies.

READ MORE: French media name the Aston Villa player who was ‘exemplary’ in Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain

Newcastle fans concede Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins was superb against Magpies

Newcastle supporters acknowledged that Watkins was simply unplayable against their side and admitted they were well beaten by Villa.

“Here, fair play,” one fan wrote on X. “Watkins has put in a proper centre-forward performance today. Ran our defence absolutely ragged.”

Another said: “Villa well and truly deserved their win today. Far better than NUFC who were nowhere near their normal standards today.

“Emery got the tactics spot on and Newcastle never adapted. Far too much space for Watkins to exploit and he was excellent.”

The praise for Watkins kept coming, with one fan saying: “Can’t win them all but when they are bad they are really bad all over the park.

“Misfired, can’t cope with any kind of pace at all, lost every 50/50, Watkins always causes us problems, Isak was atrocious, I could go on, anyways on to Ipswich 6 points should do it for CL.”

Another fan wrote: “A very disappointing 2nd half performance after an evenly balanced 1st. Watkins kept exposing us and Villa have been good value for the win.

“We’ve looked leggy and shell-shocked. A sobering reminder that CL football not yet secure, but we can rectify with win v Ipswich.”

Another fan said: “The lads are due an off day like and this is the mother of off days!

“Watkins has ran us ragged pulled the back four all over the place all game. You’d think he was the world class striker on the pitch today… let’s bounce back against Ipswich.”

How Ollie Watkins and Alexander Isak fared in Aston Villa win over Newcastle

Watkins was outstanding as he got Villa off to the perfect start with a goal in the first minute.

He then hit the woodwork twice in the first half, before assisting Ian Maatsen for Villa’s second of the night.

Meanwhile, Isak was anonymous for much of the game and hardly got any touches of the ball in the final third.

There was one half-decent opening for Isak, but he didn’t take it well and the keeper was easily able to claim the weak tap.

Villa are next in action on Tuesday night as they head to Manchester City in the Premier League.

Meanwhile, Newcastle don’t play until next Saturday when they host Ipswich Town at St James’ Park.