Magpies win piles misery on Lambert

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 2

Newcastle have lavished £18m this month, Aston Villa have not spent a penny. The wisdom of that decision by Randy Lerner, the Villa chairman, was again called into question as Paul Lambert’s team’s miserable run continued, the Midlands club slipping into the bottom three.

Alan Pardew hailed one of his new signings, Moussa Sissoko, as the catalyst for the win. “Sissoko really grabbed the game by the horns and that’s what we needed,” said Pardew. “I don’t think we’d have won that game if we hadn’t signed Sissoko — that’s how important he was.”