Newcastle United 5-1 Aston Villa: Dominic Scurr reaction

Dominic Scurr reflects on Newcastle United's 5-1 win over Aston Villa on the opening day of the Premier League season.

Transcript

00:00 Newcastle United 5 Aston Villa 1 here at St James' Park and as the start of the season

00:06 goes it doesn't really come much better than that.

00:09 Guess the place to start though, 6 minutes in Sandro Tonali.

00:13 There was decisions to make really from Eddie Howe whether to start Tonali after his £52

00:18 million arrival from AC Milan early on this summer.

00:22 In pre-season he sort of quietly got about his business, had a few moments of quality,

00:28 a few moments of potential weakness as well, not to mention in the 3-3 draw with Aston

00:34 Villa in the Premier League summer series.

00:36 But after just 6 minutes, gets on the score sheet, dream debut for him, the fastest debut

00:42 goal scorer in the Premier League for Newcastle.

00:44 Anthony Gordon, another decision Eddie Howe had to make on that left wing, setting Tonali

00:48 up and from there to be honest I thought Tonali, as far as debuts go, was absolutely sensational.

00:56 I think it's the best home debut I've seen from a Newcastle player probably since Moussa

01:00 Suzoko back in 2013.

01:02 I think it was against Chelsea where he scored those two goals, just ran Chelsea right.

01:06 But less about him, Sandro Tonali today just bossed that midfield, he dictated the pace

01:13 of the game at times, the sort of swagger he showed, I mean he looked like he'd been

01:18 there playing in that midfield, playing in the Premier League for years, not just his

01:23 first Premier League game as it was this afternoon.

01:26 The goal obviously helps with the confidence but after that he played a role in a few of

01:32 the other goals as well, the pass released Harvey Barnes for Callum Wilson's goal and

01:38 yeah just really, really dominant performance from him but obviously several other very

01:44 good performances as well.

01:46 Anthony Gordon impressed on the left wing, we saw Alexander Isak score twice, another

01:52 decision for how to make to start either Wilson or Isak.

01:58 Wilson comes on after Isak scores a brace and then scores himself, Harvey Barnes as

02:02 well, another decision how he had to make.

02:05 The bench for Newcastle was just really, really strong this afternoon, not this evening rather.

02:12 You look and you bring on Harvey Barnes, you bring on Callum Wilson, 31 Premier League

02:16 goals between them last season and the last 20 minutes of the game it was just sort of

02:21 one way traffic really, it was how much Newcastle could win by rather than whether they'd win

02:25 or not.

02:26 Ahead of the game it was probably an evenly poised type game, Villa obviously since appointing

02:32 Unai Emery had picked up more points than Newcastle in the Premier League but today

02:36 for 60 minutes it was quite even, Moussa Diaby equalised, Alexander Isak put Newcastle back

02:43 in front but then once that third goal went in it was one way traffic and yeah Newcastle

02:49 were excellent this afternoon.

02:54 Still room to improve, defensively there were some openings, Nick Pope had to make a few

02:58 good saves but really it's hard to find any fault with what we saw today, it was picked

03:05 up right where they left off from some of the best performances from last season and

03:08 hopefully onwards and upwards from here.

03:11 Man City away next week, doesn't come much tougher than that but we'll be there covering

03:15 the game for the Shields Gazette online and in print so see you there.