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