Newcastle United host Aston Villa in their first game of the new Premier League season

Aston Villa head to Newcastle United this weekend on the back of a really strong pre-season campaign that has pleased manager Unai

Emery. But in evaluating the summer friendlies, the Villa boss might have given Eddie Howe some vital clues to how they will approach

Saturday’s season-opener.

The Magpies will be hoping to get the new campaign off to a winning start at St James’ Park to build on last season’s fourth-place finish.

But they have a tough start against Villa, who enjoyed an excellent run after Spanish head coach Emery replaced Steven Gerrard and

ended up qualifying for this season’s Europa Conference League.

The two sides met recently as part of their respective Stateside pre-season tours and played out a 3-3 draw. It was part of a run of six-

game friendly run for Villa this summer that culminated with a 2-1 victory over Valencia on Saturday to leave them with a record of three wins and three draws.

Howe will be well aware of the threat Villa will pose his side’s chances of getting off to a winning start this weekend. But the Spaniard

might have given Newcastle some valuable insight into what to expect from the Midlands side this weekend, which could prove helpful for

Newcastle’s preparations.

Emery told our sister site Birmingham Live: “It’s always difficult and you have to be competitive. Today [against Valencia] we weren’t brilliant in 90 minutes and we didn’t control the game like we wanted, but I think we competed well.

“We took our moment to control it a bit better than what we were doing, but we scored two goals, we didn’t concede many chances and

really, the goal was maybe a small mistake and now we will do the analysis of the pre-season.

“I am happy for the matches in the United States and the matches we played against Lazio and here playing away. Next week we start

against Newcastle away and we must take the best things we have been doing and being competitive.

“To start next week in the Premier League, which is the first competition we are going to face, we have to be fit, everybody aware that it

could be a long season, hopefully on Thursdays then Sundays, Carabao Cup, FA Cup, and I think we did the pre-season thinking we have

to tactically work different things and we were practising some tactical decisions we are taking.

“Overall, I am very happy and we have to be ready, and everybody excited and our supporters for our first match against Newcastle. It’s

our objective now to be very competitive.”

In terms of tactical insight, Villa have played pre-season with a 4-2-3-1 fluid formation. When defending in particular it takes up that

shape, but in possession, they rely on moving their opponents around by being so flexible in terms of players’ defined roles in the side. The

big example Emery offered in an interview with Sky was how his back four operate.

He told them: “The idea with the centre-backs at the beginning is to play with two, but sometimes we are trying is to build-up with three.

We are feeling very good defensively with four and of course, mixing those players, having versatility that we can add in our shape.

“We can play with three, but always trying to build up with three players, always trying to defend with four. Sometimes we can spread out,

one playing right and one playing left with our centre-back. The reason is to connect one player or two players with Pau Torres, but join

another possibility inside with Konsa to play right-back but thinking as a centre-back, not thinking as a right-back, that is the only

difference.”