Newcastle United & Aston Villa hit with Premier League bans after 'unseen' St James' Park incident

Anthony Gordon gave Newcastle an early lead before Jhon Duran’s first-half red card that has sparked plenty of debate, but more on that later. Alexander Isak doubled The Magpies’ lead in the second half before Joelinton made it 3-0 in stoppage time.

Here are five talking points from the game...

Tino Livramento drops out & Newcastle defender makes first appearance in 14 months

Newcastle have made two changes to the side that beat Ipswich Town 4-0 on Saturday with Joe Willock and Tino Livramento dropping out in place of Joelinton and Kieran Trippier. It was Trippier’s first start since the 0-0 draw at Everton in early October, while Joelinton returned after serving a one-match suspension.

After the match, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe explained that Livramento’s surprise omission from the squad was due to illness, but was pleased with Trippier’s performance coming back into the side.

“Very strong performance from Kieran,” Howe told The Gazette. “He's been waiting patiently and the little cameos in recent weeks have certainly helped him get his feeling rhythm back.

“A vastly experienced player, I had no doubt he would do well, the only question mark was how long he would last due to a lack of game time but I thought he did very well. Let's see how he reacts to the game [ahead of Manchester United].”

Trippier was taken off in the closing stages of the match with former Aston Villa full-back Matt Targett coming on in his place. It was the 29-year-old’s first competitive appearance for Newcastle in almost 14 months following various fitness issues.

“It was [great to see Targett back] when you see behind the scenes how hard he's worked and conducted himself,” Howe added. “He's had injury troubles but he's come back and trained really, really well.

“He's trained as a left-back but today we knew with Tino's illness we needed him potentially if Kieran couldn't make it all the way through the game so our plan pre-game was to put him on in that position and he never let us down, I thought he was excellent. He's got the experience to play on that [right] side despite being very left-footed.”

Newcastle off to a flyer again as Jhon Duran sees red

After taking the lead inside the opening half-a-minute at Ipswich, Newcastle made supporters wait a leisurely 81 seconds before Anthony Gordon curled in a stunning effort from the corner of the box to put Newcastle in front.

Villa responded well to going behind as a back-and-forth game started to unfold before the visitors were reduced to 10 men just after the half-hour mark. After competing for the ball with Fabian Schar, Jhon Duran stepped on the Newcastle defender who was on the ground.

Although Duran appeared to apologise to Schar following the incident, referee Anthony Taylor quickly brandished a straight red card to the striker. It was a decision that both Howe and Villa boss Unai Emery deemed harsh when assessing the incident after the match.

Villa will appeal the decision despite VAR refraining from overturning the on-field decision. Duran will now serve a three-match ban for violent conduct. Schar served a ban of the same length for a clash with Southampton forward Ben Brereton-Diaz at the start of the season despite minimal force or contact.

Two more red cards at half-time as Eddie Howe suggests it could have been more

What was described and confirmed by multiple sources as a ‘20-man melee’ in the tunnel at half-time saw Newcastle assistant manager Jason Tindall and Aston Villa lead analyst Victor Manas shown red cards.

As per Premier League rules, Tindall will now serve a one-match touchline ban for Newcastle’s upcoming trip to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Monday (8pm kick-off). Manas will watch the home match against Brighton & Hove Albion from the stands at Villa Park.

While Villa head coach Emery claimed he ‘didn’t see’ the incident, Howe provided some information on what happened away from the Amazon cameras.

“I saw plenty [of the incident],” he said. “I don't know the actual details of why he was sent off, that would need some clarification from me because if you're going to send him off you could probably send 10 to 15 people off. I'm not quite sure what he's been charged with.

“I don't think [a ‘20-man melee’] is far off, I think. These things always start not with the intention of it happening in the way that it did. It was probably 17 or 18 people trying to calm it down but what it looks like then is more people are involved and no one wants to see that.

“I don't think it is right to go into [small] details. You can draw your own conclusions, I think.”

Free-scoring Newcastle United

Before the start of December, Newcastle had scored more than two goals just once in their opening 15 matches of the campaign. The 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace in which The Magpies failed to register a clear shot on goal has ended up being an attacking turning point in the season.

Since then, Newcastle have more than doubled their scoring tally for the season inside six games with 19 goals now scored. That’s no small part down to the attacking efforts of Alexander Isak, who has 10 goals in his last 10 games now as well as the reintroduction of Jacob Murphy, who has seven goal involvements in his last four matches.

Sandro Tonali coming into the side in the No. 6 role has also unlocked new attacking avenues for Howe’s side with Guimaraes’ ability to push further up the pitch and create. The pair combined to release Joelinton in the build-up for Newcastle’s opener and also played a part in a disallowed goal in the second half.

Despite scoring three, The Magpies also had three goals disallowed in the match. Joelinton found the net after being set up by Isak in the first half but the flag was up for the ball going out of play in the build-up.

After doubling Newcastle’s lead, Isak was then denied by the offside flag against Murphy. Guimaraes himself found the net but a VAR check deemed that he handled the ball.

Champions League dream alive?

A month ago, Newcastle looked miles away from a team capable of qualifying for Europe. But in a classic case of ‘form is temporary, class is permanent,’ Howe and his players have turned things around with three successive wins taking them up to fifth in the table.

Fifth place is on course not only for European qualification but Champions League football as things stand due to the new UEFA coefficient rule. But it’s an unusual and remarkably tight Premier League as we approach the midway point in the season.

If Newcastle had been offered being a point ahead of Manchester City on Boxing Day, few would have turned it down. Though, by the same token, if you’d been told Newcastle would be five points behind Nottingham Forest, you would have assumed something had gone badly wrong!

Such is the strange nature of the Premier League this season. But after a difficult opening few months, Newcastle seem to finally be finding their groove heading into a crucial run of fixtures.