Can Villa balance their title ambitions with FA Cup dreams against Newcastle?

Aston Villa turn to the FA Cup when they welcome Newcastle United to Villa Park in the fourth round of the competition on Saturday evening.

Villa continued their late title surge with a 1-0 home victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday.

Unai Emery’s side defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the third round of the FA Cup to reach this stage of the competition.

Newcastle claimed a 2-1 Premier League victory at Tottenham Stadium in their last outing on Tuesday.

The Magpies were successful in the penalty shootout after a 3-3 stalemate with Bournemouth in the FA Cup to progress to this stage of the competition.

Match preview

Aston Villa have knocked Newcastle out four times from the FA Cup (1894/95, 1896/97, 1904/05, 2000/01), losing the other two ties in the 1923/24 final and the third round in 1951/52.

In five of the previous six seasons Aston Villa and Newcastle have met in the FA Cup; either Villa (1895, 1897, 1905, 1924) or Newcastle (1905, 1924, 1952) have reached the final that year, with two of those seasons seeing the sides meet in the final (1904/05 and 1923/24).

The Villans knocked out Spurs in the FA Cup fourth round last season but haven’t gone beyond this stage in consecutive seasons since doing so between 2008/09 and 2010/11.

The Magpies have won six of their last 11 away games in the FA Cup (D2 L3), having gone 15 without a win on the road beforehand. The Magpies have lost 10 of their last 13 away from home at Premier League opponents, however (W2 D1), failing to score in eight of their last nine.

Morgan Rogers has been involved in four goals in five FA Cup starts for Aston Villa (3 goals, 1 assist), scoring in their third-round win over Spurs this season, while he scored and assisted against Spurs in last season’s fourth round.

Team news

Aston Villa

Matty Cash, Youri Tielemans, John McGinn, Boubacar Kamara and Andres Garcia are sidelined with injuries.

Newcastle United

Tino Livramento, Fabian Schar, Joelinton and Emil Krafth are in the visitors’ infirmary, while Bruno Guimarães and Lewis Miley are doubts for the trip to Villa Park.

Predicted line-ups

Aston Villa: Bizot, Bogarde, Lindelof, Torres, Digne, Onana, Luiz, Bailey, Rogers, Buendia, Abraham.

Newcastle United: Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Willock, Tonali, Ramsey, Barnes, Woltemade, Gordon.