NO Alexander Isak – no goals.
Newcastle drew a blank at Villa Park and the absence of the controversial Swede was plain to see.
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Eddie Howe’s side even had the advantage of playing against 10 men for the final 24 minutes after Villa defender Ezri Konsa was sent off for dragging back Anthony Gordon as the Toon forward raced in on goal.
But they could not make the man advantage count.
You had the feeling was that, had Isak been playing and not holding out for a move to Liverpool, then Newcastle would have had the better of a Villa side who struggled to get out of first gear.
The Isak saga dominated Toon’s build-up to the game, but the players looked to have put those concerns out of their mind as they provided a real threat in the early stages.
With Isak training away from the first team, and effectively on strike as the Premier League season got underway, Howe was forced to accept the Anfield target would not be playing at Villa Park.
Newcastle were operating with two forwards out wide and another – Gordon – in a central attacking role.
And they provided the bigger threat by far in the opening stages. But the absence of Isak was plain to see.
New signing Anthony Elanga wrong-footed the Villa defence and raced in on goal, but keeper Marco Bizot pulled off a vital save to his right on his debut following a summer move from Ligue 1 side Brest.
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Another chance went begging after 11 minutes when Barnes crossed for Gordon who headed wide from close range.
Gordon then produced a low shot which was pushed away by Bizot – who was playing in place of Emi Martinez. The Argentinian was suspended after being sent off on the final day of last season at Manchester United.
Howe would have been the happier of the two managers at half-time – although the momentum created by his Newcastle players faded towards the break.
Unai Emery needed to inject some urgency into Villa’s players, who still looked like the season has yet to start for them from an attacking point of view.
Newcastle created the better openings early on, with Villa’s defence working hard to stay on level terms.
The game turned into a stalemate until the 66th minute when Konsa was dismissed by ref Craig Pawson produced a red card.
Pawson appeared to have little choice, although there was a covering defender in Tyrone Mings.
Gordon ran on to a superbly weighted pass from Elanga – and Konsa tugged Gordon back almost instinctively.
A VAR check confirmed Konsa had denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
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The free-kick came to nothing but a number of Newcastle players tried to rally the fans after what had been a quiet second half.
The main activity had been coming from Villa supporters – but both sets of supporters are unhappy with the Premier League.
The Holte End erupted in a chant of ‘Premier League, corrupt as f***’ after their struggles with PSR rules. And the Newcastle fans backed them by joining in.
But 10-man Villa had some of the game’s best opening and sub Donyell Malen forced Newcastle keeper Nick Pope into a rare save.
Villa’s Holte End greeted their team with a huge tifo which read ‘No limits to our dreams’ and a picture of Emery.
Sadly for Villa, their summer has been all about limits as PSR rules meant they have had to sell players – including Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle – and will not be able to spend on a replacement.
The £40million deal taking him from Birmingham to the North East is going through this weekend.
Villa have only brought in two new faces – Bizot and the £30million striker Evann Guessand from Nice.
If Howe had problems before a ball had been kicked, Emery had worries of a different kind.
The Spanish boss addressed the PSR issue in his programme notes and called for the system to be looked at.
Emery said: “Financial control rules came to football to avoid bankruptcies and payment defaults, with a good purpose.
“But, as professionals, we should review it, for this good tool will become a limitation for the clubs that are doing good management who will never be allowed to dream and get higher goals because the revenue, key for these financial rules, needs time to come to reality after sporting success”.
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