Ten-man Villa holds Newcastle with Isak absent
Aston Villa survived defender Ezri Konsa's dismissal to salvage a 0-0 draw at home to Newcastle United in its Premier League opener, with the visitors missing want-away striker Alexander Isak as they created chances but failed to finish.
Newcastle's new signing Anthony Elanga almost scored in the third minute but Marco Bizot made an excellent reflex save on his league debut to deny the winger and the Dutchman was called into action several more times as Eddie Howe's side dominated.
Villa managed to steady the ship but was thrown into disarray in the 66th minute when Konsa was shown a straight red card for pulling down Magpies forward Anthony Gordon while he was in hot pursuit of a throughball from Elanga.
Newcastle continued to fire crosses into the box but without a recognised centre-forward such as Sweden international Isak, who wants to leave amid interest from defending champion Liverpool, it could not convert them and the game ended in a stalemate.
Villa boss Unai Emery was disappointed at dropping points, despite surviving with 10 men.
"I am not happy with one point at home. But against a team like Newcastle, they made a lot of good chances in the first half," Emery said.
"Second half we dominated more, created chances. But the red card changed the match completely. The players responded fantastically, the point more or less is fair.
"It was a tough match. After the red card there was more necessity to defend, but we responded to all the issues on the field."
Emery did highlight some positives from the performance, though, most notably for debutant goalkeeper Marco Bizot, who joined from Brest earlier this summer.
Bizot was handed his Premier League debut in place of Emiliano Martinez, who was suspended after his red card on the final day of the 2024-2025 campaign.
The Dutchman made three saves throughout the match, most notably against Elanga, standing strong to repell his effort away with just three minutes on the clock.
With Martinez's future at Villa Park still in doubt, Emery was happy with Bizot's performance and clean sheet on his debut.
Emery added: "Fantastic, he did very good work for his confidence and his team mates."
