Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard: We could face a relegation battle if we repeat Newcastle display

Steven Gerrard said his Aston Villa side delivered their «worst performance» since he joined the club in the 1-0 defeat at Newcastle. The Villans were never at their best in the encounter at St James Park, and saw Kieran Trippier convert a 35th-minute free kick which turned out to be the winning goal. Ad/> The visitors might've got back into it in the second half through Ollie Watkins, but he was ruled offside by VAR.

Premier LeagueCoutinho was 'desperate' to come back to the Premier League — Gerrard11/02/2022 AT 18:44 Gerrard told the Villa website: «We were way off the level by far. »We have to be careful we don't repeat that performance because we can be dragged down this league and dragged down pretty quickly. «There needs to be a drastic improvement, individually and collectively.

We got what we deserved. Newcastle boss Howe celebrates 'beauty' in win over Aston Villa Zouma pulls out of Leicester match in warm-up after illness Klopp: We avoided a banana skin »Everything was missing. Everything we'd worked really hard for.

All the positives that we've shown, the steps forward that we've taken — we certainly took steps back. «It's a frustrating day — I can't think of many positives. I thought our two centre-halves held us together and Phil [Coutinho] did everything he could to get us back in the game.

/> »The VAR decision took three or four minutes and there were a lot of stop-starts during the game — that was frustrating. But we didn't start the game anywhere near our level — the first 45 minutes were poor. «We improved slightly after the break but still it was nowhere near good enough.