Newcastle, Villa level but not equal as Manzambi embarrasses player Howe wanted him to replace

The Premier League table does not lie after seven matches, but it can certainly mask the truth.

Scan far enough down the nascent standings, past the entirely game promoted pair of Hull and Ipswich, and one is greeted with the almost identical records of Newcastle and Aston Villa, separated only by goals scored.

But these are not two equal teams. The downward spiral of one has interwoven with the upward trajectory of the other to create an illusion of parity unlikely to last much longer beyond this meeting.

They provide a compelling case study in the importance of momentum – in that Aston Villa have built some and Newcastle have precisely none.

The former have carved out a remarkable niche of making a false start to the season before quickly coming to their senses. The methods of Unai Emery take time to embed and instil, but not much.

Last season’s five-game winless start provided the paradoxical foundations for a fourth-placed finish and Europa League glory; after losing three and drawing one of their first four this campaign, Villa have won two and drawn one with a perfect record in the Champions League.

Newcastle, by contrast, went three matches without defeat to mark the beginning of the Matthias Jaissle era, but have now lost three of the next four.

This defeat most harshly underlined the growing pains of Newcastle 2.0, with perhaps a morsel of Newcastle 1.0 regret thrown in.

It had to be Johan Manzambi with the game’s only goal. The narrative dictated as such. The player Newcastle courted most intensely in the summer finally rocked up at St James’ Park, proudly linking arms with the club he rejected them for, and pretended not to realise the Magpies were ever interested.

The World Cup star was allowed to make himself at home with the sort of atrocious defending which grants a 6ft forward the unabating freedom of the space between the penalty spot and six-yard box, of course, which does help.

But it still required Champions League-level movement and execution of a thumping header past Lukas Hornicek from Joao Gomes’ pinpoint cross to separate and underline the difference between the two sides.

With Victor Munoz impressing for Liverpool earlier in the day, it was an especially painful glimpse into what Newcastle could have had.

In one of the many Athletic longreads published in trying to explain the latest summer recruitment drive on Tyneside, it was said that Eddie Howe ‘was understandably bruised after missing out on two of his key targets, in Manzambi and Victor Munoz’, having ‘driven the interest’ of the former in particular.

Howe’s departure from Newcastle was announced less than a fortnight after Manzambi joined Villa and the failures of yet another transfer window started to reveal themselves.

Yet even the former manager himself is central to another fork in the road between these two teams. On an alternate timeline, Newcastle approach Emery properly and Howe never even gets the job.

That situation turned out wonderfully for Newcastle, at least until the last couple of seasons. But their diminished ability to pivot from Plan A to Plan B was excruciatingly examined here.

A player they missed out on decided the game, while those they were made to settle for – Matias Fernandez-Pardo and Joe Willock, who Manzambi was identified by Howe as ‘an ideal replacement or upgrade on’ – were ferociously ineffective.

The most damning lack of contingency was saved for last, when Dan Burn was sent on by Jaissle in the 90th minute to go straight up front. St James’ Park greeted the final whistle a few uneventful minutes later with what must contractually be obliged as a smattering of boos.

They are often pitched together as such due to PSR-lamenting, SCR-hating, glass-ceiling-smashing, giant-awakening adjacency, but while Newcastle and Villa are level, they are far from equal.