The English Premier League 2025/26 kicks off on Friday 15 August, 2025.
Head Coach of Newcastle United, Eddie Howe, has made known his side’s readiness for the first encounter of the new campaign against Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.
The English manager described Unai Emery’s Aston Villa as “tactically excellent”, saying, any team that fails to take them serious will get “punished”.
Newcastle United will travel to Villa Park for the Premier League match against Aston Villa on Saturday 16 August, 2025 at 12:30 (WAT).
Howe, who guided the Magpies to secure a spot in the Uefa Champions League 2025/26, disclosed, “everyone is available” for the showdown against the Villans.
According to Newcastle United official X account, at his press conference ahead of the match, Howe said:
On team-news ahead of tomorrow’s game…
“Everyone is available apart from Joe [Willock], and he’s not too far away himself. We have a relatively good looking squad in terms of injury news. Malick [Thiaw] will be part of the squad, he has trained two days, never easy coming in at the end of pre-season, but he’s doing well.”
On the start to the 25/26 season…
“You look at the first few on the calendar and they are tough games for us. We know the quality of the opposition. We have had some really tough battles against them, it is going to be a really tight game but one we hope we can do well in.”
On Aston Villa…
“Very good environment for them to play in, good support, tactically they are excellent. Their way of playing has been engrained into them, same way and same principle. If you are not on your game, they will punish you. We have had some really good games against them, both positive and negative and the negative ones you learn from. We are going to be ready for a really tough game.”
On early season expectations…
“Progression, improvement, more control in our performances, more dominant displays. We want to score goals and to attack. The league is so hard, the challenges are difficult. I feel we will be stronger when we have our full compliment of players. We need to find ways to win games when we are not playing our best.”
