Dean Smith spoke to the media on Friday morning ahead of this weekend’s Premier League tie against Newcastle United.
The Aston Villa head coach had plenty of topics to discuss in the build-up to taking on the Magpies.
Here’s what he had to say…
On team news…
"JohnMcGinn is obviously suspended with five yellows and Trezeguet will come back into the squad.
“They’ve all recovered well, to be honest. We came back to Bodymoor and did a recovery session and then we were back in yesterday for another recovery session.
“We’re preparing for Newcastle today and everyone has the green light."
On recent form…
“We feel like we’re in a good place. In our last three games we’ve played Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City and we’ve only got one point from them.
“We feel that we deserved more. We felt it was a poor penalty decision for Paul Pogba in the Manchester United game and obviously decisions went against us in the Manchester City game.
“Manchester City was the game I felt we deserved to get beat as they were the better team. We’ve got great belief in the way we’re playing and the team we’ve got.”
On Newcastle…
“They had a great start to the season with a great result at West Ham. You could see that the players all look bright and that they’ve got goalscorers within the team.
“They’re just going through one of those periods at the minute. We went through one last season – we haven’t had a period like it this season.
“You’re just waiting for something to kickstart you, and I’m sure it will. We have to make sure that it’s not against us.”
On returning to Villa Park…
“It will be good to be back at Villa Park. We haven’t been there in a while, so we’re looking forward to it.
“The last time we played there I was watching at home as our youth team played against Liverpool.
“It will be nice to be there ourselves.”
