Unai Emery watched as his Aston Villa team lost 3-1 at home to Newcastle United.
United advance to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Three goals in the second half from NUFC eventually saw the visitors win the match.
However, a terrible match for the referee and his assistants AND those who say VAR should not be used in football.
Unai Emery sees a series of terrible decisions going in his favor.
It was so bad that even the Aston Villa boss had to admit: “Today VAR makes sense. VAR is needed to help the referees.”
Villa’s opening goal was clearly offside.
Lewis Hall appeared to have been brought down in the penalty area when the Villa defender did not play the man the ball but awarded a goal kick.
Then the Digne incident when his reckless attack on Murphy was the clearest red card but somehow only got a yellow.
An unbelievable decision when Digne was in the penalty area and the referee gave a handball, BUT a free kick outside the penalty area and no penalty.
No VAR is active, only allowed from the next round.
However, Unai Emery also tries to argue that VAR decisions can compensate for themselves…: “Tammy Abraham scored one goal two weeks ago, which was taken away by VAR and today he scored. He worked fantastic and his adaptation is quick. We will need his help, his commitment and his performance, just like today.”
There was one decision that even these awful match officials couldn’t get wrong.
Newcastle United at half-time, three attacking players against one defender, Aston Villa keeper Marco Bizot storming onto the pitch towards the halfway line and an extremely ridiculous ‘challenge’ for Jacob Murphy. Not even useless referee Chris Kavanagh could get this wrong.
Unai Emery asked about his goalkeeper’s idiotic actions that got him sent off: “Marco always plays so focused and performs fantastic…The red card is a difficult circumstance for him. It is something to learn as experience. We will try to improve everything we build, even with a bad result today.”
Aston Villa deservedly beaten.
Even Unai Emery had to admit that Newcastle United deserved the win: “The players fought fantastically, but after we got the red card it became more and more difficult in the second half. We kept competing and the supporters helped us. We were resilient, but when they scored their first goal it was a little more difficult. We tried but it wasn’t enough. Newcastle are a really fantastic team and they are contenders in this competition.”
Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 3 – Saturday 14 February 2026 5.45pm
Match statistics
Goals:
Newcastle United:
Tonali 63, 76, Woltemade 88
Astonvilla:
Abrham 14, Bizot 45+1 red card
Possess was Newcastle 57% Villa 43%
Total shots were Newcastle 12 Villa 8
Shots on target were Newcastle 3 Villa 2
Corners were Newcastle 6 Villa 6
Touches in the opposition box Newcastle 31 Villa 25
Newcastle team vs Aston Villa:
Ramsdale, Trippier (Alex Murphy 90), Thiaw, Burn, Hall, Ramsey (Willock 80), Tonali, Barnes, Jacob Murphy (Elanga 63), Woltemade, Osula (Gordon 63)
Unused subtitles:
Pope, Ruddy, Shahar, Neave, Seung-soo
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