Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins scores the game's first goal. EPA
Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins scores the game's first goal. EPA
Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins scores the game's first goal. EPA
Aston Villa's Ollie Watkins scores the game's first goal. EPA

Relieved striker breaks goalless run as Aston Villa sweep aside Newcastle


Simon Rushton
  • English
  • Arabic

Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins scored his first Premier League goal in 10 games and midfielder Bertrand Traore added another to give them a 2-0 home win over struggling Newcastle United.

Villa missed several chances to win by a bigger margin but the visitors lacked any edge with their midfield stifled out and unable to feed strikers Andy Carroll and Callum Wilson.
Watkins has been the Villa provider in recent matches and has seen efforts disallowed or hit the woodwork.
The result lifted Villa two places up to eighth on 29 points from 17 games while Newcastle dropped one place to 16th on 19 points from 19 games after a fourth successive defeat since the turn of the year.

Villa pressed from the start and Watkins fired them into a 13th-minute lead as he beat visiting goalkeeper Karl Darlow to the ball and headed it in after Fabian Schaer failed to clear a low Matt Targett cross from the left.

Watkins had another effort correctly ruled out for marginal offside before Traore made it 2-0 in the 42nd, beating Darlow with a fine first-time shot off the underside of the bar thanks to a superb assist by Jack Grealish.

Villa kept up the pressure after the break as Darlow denied Watkins in the 48th minute and substitute Trezeguet in stoppage time, while Ross Barkley came close with an audacious back-heel and Grealish fired wide of the far post.

Watkins was delighted and conceded his barren run had dented his confidence.

"I feel like it has been a long time coming, I have been getting into the right areas and it has been frustrating," he said.

"As a striker you always want to score goals, I have been unlucky and thankfully it went in today. I kept my eye on the ball and the next thing I knew it was in the back of the net.

"The goals will always come if I keep going in the box, it came off a defender's shin tonight and fell for me."
Newcastle's winless run now stretches back 10 games in all competitions and piled more pressure on manager Steve Bruce, whose side were on the back foot throughout.

Company Profile

Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million

Company Fact Box

Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019

Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO

Based: Amman, Jordan

Sector: Education Technology

Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed

Stage: early-stage startup 

Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.

The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo

Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 6-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km

Price: Dh133,900

On sale: now 

THE SPECS

Engine: 3-litre V6

Transmission: eight-speed automatic

Power: 424hp

Torque: 580 Nm

Price: From Dh399,000

On sale: Now

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Install an air filter in your home.

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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
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Chef Nobu's advice for eating sushi

“One mistake people always make is adding extra wasabi. There is no need for this, because it should already be there between the rice and the fish.
“When eating nigiri, you must dip the fish – not the rice – in soy sauce, otherwise the rice will collapse. Also, don’t use too much soy sauce or it will make you thirsty. For sushi rolls, dip a little of the rice-covered roll lightly in soy sauce and eat in one bite.
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Museum of the Future in numbers
  •  78 metres is the height of the museum
  •  30,000 square metres is its total area
  •  17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

Day 1 results:

Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)

Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)