In any loss, you can point to a moment or two of poor play and brush aside any claims that the effort was good enough to deserve better; that was certainly the case today, be it Demba Ba left unmarked by Carlos Cuellar in front of goal or Richard Dunne whiffing a chance to clear and letting the ball fall to Papiss Demba Cisse. Two goals that could have been prevented, and it turned out to be all that the home side needed to take three points. But you could find moments like that in every game for either side, and ultimately Villa's efforts today deserved more. This was a very frustrating loss on the heels of a very frustrating draw, but it was frustrating in large part because it took two tremendous individual efforts from Newcastle strikers to nullify a strong performance from a severely weakened Villa side.

Villa yet again came out playing a very high-pressure style early on, sitting medium-deep in defense and looking to force errors and spring counter-attacks in midfield. It's something they've been doing for a little while now, (especially playing away) and I'm a big fan of the approach; it's not something you'd want to do for 90 minutes with this personnel, but it's been successful in throwing the opposition off of their game and keeping them from controlling the pace early on. It kept Newcastle from getting into any sort of rhythm in the attack, but Villa wasn't able to get much going early on in their own right and the result was a quarter-hour or so of fast-paced, chaotic pinball more or less. Eventually things settled down a but and Villa ended up in control of things for the most part, but the home side's superb defense ensured keeper Tim Krul didn't have much to worry about.

Newcastle then illustrated why they're generally content to settle back and let the opposition hang onto the ball for a bit when they unleashed a flurry of counter-attacking play that instantly changed the mood of the game. Demba Ba's acrobatic finish of a deflected Ryan Taylor effort (during the course of which the winger appeared to sustain a serious leg injury) gave the home side a lead that seemed miles away just a few minutes prior, and Newcastle would continue to threaten for the remainder of the half. The roles reversed pretty quickly, but the Villa defense never looked as comfortable with the hatches battened down as Newcastle's did, and the Toon were very close to grabbing a second and effectively killing the game off before the interval despite Villa having a fairly strong first half-hour.

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Charles N'Zogbia must've realized that his tweet was foolish as soon as he pushed the "send" button, and deleted it immediately, but Aston Villa supporters who had their eyes on Twitter caught this anyway:

Well, let's see. Villa lost a lead to Arsenal to get knocked out of the FA Cup. Stupid defensive errors meant only a draw was possible against QPR. And today, despite the heroics of Robbie Keane, the team couldn't manage even a point against Newcastle.

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I've been admiring the snow and watching Mad Men all morning, so I am way too tired from all this excitement to create one of those pretty little charts that typically go at the top of our open threads. Sorry guys -- blame Aaron for his internet being out.

The Magpies are perfect in all competitions thus far in 2012 -- could it be the Villa that manage to end that streak? Or will we see the same humiliation we saw in Newcastle last season? It's been put forward that Newcastle is "almost in Scotland" and therefore we supporters should be optimistic. And no, it doesn't matter that a Scot was leading in that horrible defeat, because it wasn't snowing then. Very well. Here are your lineups:

Newcastle Starting XI: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon; Ryan Taylor, Danny Guthrie, James Perch, Jonas Gutierrez; Leon Best, Demba Ba

Newcastle Bench: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa, Gabriel Obertan, Shola Ameobi, Papiss Cisse.

Aston Villa Starting XI: Shay Given; Alan Hutton, Carlos Cuellar, Richard Dunne, Stephen Warnock; Charles N'Zogbia, Stephen Ireland, Stiliyan Petrov, Ciaran Clark; Darren Bent, Robbie Keane. (arrange these as you like)

Villa Bench: Brad Guzan, Andreas Weimann, Gary Gardner, Barry Bannan, Nathan Baker, Eric Lichaj, Emile Heskey.

Some questions we'll just never know the answer to: Why does Emile Heskey get so much playing time? Why did the BBC revamp their football site into something entirely unusable? And why do Aston Villa and Newcastle always play the early match on Sunday?

Another fun question to answer: Why is the Newcastle - Villa preview so damn late? Sorry, guys, but the answer is simply that I am terribly lazy and was hoping someone else could write it. But after a break yesterday in which I didn't watch one minute of football, I'm feeling itchy, ready for a return of the Villa.

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Habib Beye has left Aston Villa by mutual consent.

The 34-year-old defender will now be parking his Ferrari at the Keepmoat for the foreseeable future, as his emergency loan to Doncaster Rovers will now become a permanent move. Beye was signed from Newcastle United prior to the 2009-10 season for a transfer fee around £2.5m to a three-year deal. His wages are reported to be in excess of £40k/week. The resources expended on Beye coupled with his inability to break into the team (and disastrously bad play when he did) have led to him becoming a symbol of the financial irresponsibility engaged in by the club during Martin O'Neill's time in charge.

Watching Beye on the pitch, it's hard to believe he was once a key player for Marseille. Beye's decline phase came quickly, and it seemingly coincided with his putting pen to paper on his deal with Aston Villa. In all, Beye made 18 appearances (with 15 starts) in all competitions over his two-and-a-half year Villa career. None of them were good. All of them were expensive. Perhaps the amount of the stick Beye has gotten these past few years is out of step with how much he actually deserves, but he is by many accounts a nasty prick of a man and I'm sure the £6.5m he's been paid by Aston Villa should offer some solace.

Farewell, Habib Beye. I do not wish you the best of luck, and you will most certainly not be missed.

While watching the match today some harrowing thoughts went through my mind. (These thoughts happened before the two Villa goals, but I think this is relevant anyway.)

Someone I follow on Twitter, retweeted something about where you will be in five years. I'll probably have died from a bear tranquilizer overdose. (In lieu of flowers, send puppies!) (Just kidding no I won't.) (No I won't?)But this got me to thinking about Villa. Where the hell will the Villa be in five years?

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