Aston Villa meet Newcastle United in a tricky fourth-round tie in the 2025-26 Emirates FA Cup.
Victory would see Villa reach the fifth round in consecutive seasons for the first time since a three-season streak between 2008-11 seasons.
Newcastle meanwhile are seeking to progress to the fifth round for a third straight season, having last achieved that feat between 1997-98 to 1999-2000 seasons.
Team News
Villa have no fresh injury concerns to report after their 1-0 Premier League win at home to Brighton in midweek.
Andres Garcia (hamstring), Youri Tielemans (ankle), Alysson, John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara (all knee) remain absent.
Newcastle will be without Bruno Guimaraes after he suffered a hamstring injury during their 2-1 Premier League victory at Tottenham in midweek.
Lewis Miley is a doubt as manager, Eddie Howe clarified that the issue is more a dead leg than knee injury which was initially reported.
Emil Krafth (knee), Joelinton (groin), Tino Livramento (hamstring) and Fabian Schar (ankle) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Villa host Newcastle at Villa Park on Saturday 14 February at 5:45pm GMT, live on BBC One and TNT Sports 3 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Villa have won four of their six previous FA Cup meetings against Newcastle (W4, L2), albeit across seven meetings after their recent tie in this competition needed a replay in January 2001 which Villa won (W4, D1, L2).
- Newcastle have never won away to Villa at Villa Park in the FA Cup (L3), during which they suffered an aggregate 13-2 defeat in total across those three previous trips.
- Villa have kept one clean sheet at home to Newcastle in the FA Cup, which came in a 1-0 Third Round Replay victory in January 2001.
- Villa have lost three of their last five FA Cup matches at home to fellow top-flight opposition (W2, L3).
- Excluding penalty shootouts, Newcastle have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last six FA Cup ties (W2, D2, L2).
Prediction
With their unlikely Premier League title ambitions now drifting away barring miraculous crazy drama, Villa certainly will take this seriously because this is their best chance of silverware aside from the Europa League but they will need to be more clinical than they were in their lucky win over Brighton.
Newcastle meanwhile weren’t really tested at Tottenham aside from a period during the second half and largely controlled that game with ease, although they could of been more clinical but Guglielmo Vicario’s superb goalkeeping will of prepared them to potentially deal with Emiliano Martinez here.
Howe’s Magpies also will be eager to atone for last month’s top-flight home defeat against Villa where they were essentially lacklustre and outplayed by Villa’s counter-attacking and ball control, so I expect more urgency and fight here despite their Villa Park hoodoo in the FA Cup.
On that note, I expect this to be a close game and wouldn’t be surprised if we see extra time but if that does happen, my instinct is that Villa could nick it such is their quality and tactical options.
Prediction: Aston Villa 2-1 (AET) Newcastle.
Result: Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle