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Dean Smith discusses challenge of Newcastle United on return to Villa Park

3 years ago
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Dean Smith was the man that Aston Villa called on in October 2018 to try and repair the massive mess Steve Bruce had overseen at Villa Park.

Two years and three months after Bruce got cabbaged and thrown out of Aston Villa, they are a very different club.

Dean Smith rescuing a club going nowhere, appointed mid-season he turned it around to get promotion in 2018/19, then steadied the ship last season when surviving in their first season up.

Now seeing rapid progression, Aston Villa are now playing great football and if winning their three games in hand, starting with Newcastle on Saturday, they would be heading for the top four.

Dean Smith has spoken to the media on Friday morning and is wanting to guard against any possibility of becoming the team that breaks Steve Bruce’s run of nine games without a win and only one goal in almost twelve hours of football.

Saturday will be the first Premier League match at Villa Park since Boxing Day, due to the recent virus problems Dean Smith’s club experienced.

As always though, Premier League managers are always keen to big up the opposition in advance, with Dean Smith no different…

Dean Smith press conference, beginning with what he thinks of Newcastle United:

“They had a great start to the season with a great result at West Ham.

“You could see that the players all look bright and that they’ve got goalscorers within the team.

“They’re just going through one of those periods at the minute.

“We went through one last season – we haven’t had a period like it this season.

“You’re just waiting for something to kickstart you and I’m sure it will.

“We have to make sure that it’s not against us.”

Aston Villa team news:

“JohnMcGinn is obviously suspended with five yellows and Trezeguet will come back into the squad.

“They’ve all recovered well, to be honest.

“We came back to Bodymoor and did a recovery session and then we were back in yesterday for another recovery session.

“We’re preparing for Newcastle today and everyone has the green light.”

Recent form:

“We feel like we’re in a good place.

“In our last three games we’ve played Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City and we’ve only got one point from them.

“We feel that we deserved more.

“We felt it was a poor penalty decision for Paul Pogba in the Manchester United game and obviously decisions went against us in the Manchester City game.

“Manchester City was the game I felt we deserved to get beat as they were the better team. We’ve got great belief in the way we’re playing and the team we’ve got.”

On returning to Villa Park:

“It will be good to be back at Villa Park. We haven’t been there in a while, so we’re looking forward to it.

“The last time we played there I was watching at home as our youth team played against Liverpool.

“It will be nice to be there ourselves.”

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