These are not ordinary times. Unai Emery is not an ordinary manager. He followed the 6-0 win against Fenerbache in midweek by dropping Pau Torres, who’d barely had to do a thing all night, and replaced him with the out of form Tyrone Mings. Midfield dynamo/legend John McGinn was replaced by the promising but still inconsistent Alysson. It wasn’t the sort of line-up from which battling defensive performances are made.

Villa might have expected Newcastle to pick up on this and come at them from the off, but this didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite was true. Villa looked full of invention and could have scored a couple before João Gomes crossed and Johan Manzambi’s header continued his goalscoring run.

On Wednesday night Manzambi got a goal on his 21st birthday; the last Villa player I can remember doing that in a cup tie was Brian Little, who of course went on to become the most talented footballer who ever lived. Then again, he didn’t score too many headers.

Something called the Sun, a newspaper that last carried any news round about the time Little began walking on water, marked Manzambi’s goal on Wednesday with the exclusive story that Liverpool were going to take him off our hands for roughly the same amount we’d paid for him in the summer. Perhaps after this performance they might even be gracious enough to allow us a small profit.

By now Newcastle could have already been down to ten men, when a potential maiming of Nicolas Jackson was only deemed worthy of a yellow card. The decision went to a VAR review but with Stuart Attwell doing the judging there was only one way that was going to go.

Villa continued to attack and Emiliano Buendia, a footballer reborn over the past twelve months, was unlucky not to add a second when he hit the post from outside the box. But there were no more goals before half-time and the ref’s whistle was accompanied by the sound of booing from all but one far-off section of the crowd.

McGinn replaced Alysson at half-time, which was perhaps just as well considering how Newcastle finally began to threaten. Zion Suzuki continued his own good form with saves at one end and panic-inducing distribution into the other.

Despite the pressure Villa still caused enough problems on the counter and three or four players could have scored on another day although one-nil was good enough. The nil might have looked unlikely two hours earlier but the back four was resolute with Mings particularly outstanding, especially when having to play at left-back after yet another injury in that position.