Just before the hour Mark, Aston Villa -midfielder Boubacar Kamara gathered the ball in his own half, picked up his head and saw the series Morgan Rogers in front of him.
Kamara tried to thicken a small Cross-Field Pass to his villa teammate to just mislead it, caught it fat as a golfer would say, and like so many of the passes of his team on the opening day of the new Premier League season, it ended at the feet of a green shirt.
He threw back his head and turned off disgust. Seconds later he brought down Anthony Gordon and was in the notebook of Craig Pawson.
Kamara's moment of frustration -encapsulated Dilla's aimless draw with Newcastle and has made one thing clear: they have to sign some players.
The problem is: they can't. Everyone knows that Villa is locked up in the handcuffs of PSR. They had to weaken their team to stay in accordance with the regulations. They are about to sell Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for £ 40 million, but cannot spend a cent. It was little surprise to hear Villa spend a large part of the second half in musical form, their opinion that the Premier League is 'corrupt as F ***'.
Villa was able to rely on the precision of Marco Asensio last season and the speed and directness of Marcus Rashford, but no longer. Villa would like to get Asensio on loan from Paris Saint-Germain and, boy, they need him.
“We are ambitious, try to respect the rules and try to get the best possible players, try to play as we are: contenders are for Europe and to compete as we did today,” Emery then said in the current State State of Villa. “We are not going to rest in case we can have some options in the transfer window.”
In his programs, Emery had written that 'rules for financial control came to football to prevent bankruptcies and standard settings, with a good cause. But as professionals we have to judge it, because this good tool will be a limitation for the clubs that do good management that should never dream and get higher goals. '
Before the kick -off, an enormous representation of Emery was hoisted in the air with a plate with the text: 'No limits to our dreams'.
There were many limits to their team and their game. The current state of Villa's team meant that Emery Je Tielemans started in the No10 role behind Ollie Watkins with Kamara and Amadou Onana behind them.
It was completely unable to dictate Tielemans to dictate the match for Villa as he did so often last season.
When Villa had the ball, Newcastle was deep in a 4-5-1 and the hosts just couldn't find a way. They had no one to pull the strings.
Kamara and Onana are both combative ball winners, and neither of them possess the possibility to choose locks such as Tielemans – Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes was the only Premier League midfielder who fits more between the lines last season.
It had Villa produce one of their most sloppy passing versions for their own crowd in a long time, even if the result means that it is now a full year because they last tasted the competition at home.
They only gathered three shots and none in the first half. The last time they stood at home at Newcastle, they had 23 in April and won 4-1. That day, Tielemans chose Watkins Run with a split pass for Villa to take the lead for a minute.
There was nothing of that here. Tielemans was so often too high on the field, surrounded by green shirts, happy to have his teammates behind him pause and think.
Villa Park's 73 percent Pass competition was their lowest in a home institution since December 2023. Villa had only less than 41 percent that they had here in a home game since the beginning of 2023.
The only time Tielemans got into a deeper role was when Ezri Konsa became an early contender for the most obvious red card of the season for retreating Anthony Gordon when he travels on goal.
While Villa found it impossible to play through Newcastle, without Rasmey and Rashford, they also offered little width to go around it.
Rogers Dreef Centraal to support Watkins, as he usually does, Villa managed to get into decent areas at the few occasions, while it was that John McGinn was on the task of staying broad, but had little impact on the game with little support from Matty Cash with full-back.
You wondered what Donyell Malen had to do to earn a start, which scored twice and had set three goals during the preseason. He finally rose in the 84th minute and tried the three shots of one villa against the 86th.
Watkins, who had won five goals in the preseason, also endured a difficult afternoon. His first shot of the game came after the hour and only at a handful of times was able to burst into space, on an occasion a ball back in the six-year area and his shorts up in frustration, Fabien Barthez style, when there was no one to get to the end.
Many of the goals of Villa hopes for Watkins' shoulders, a player who has not always found it easy to keep Emery's confidence at Rashford and Jhon Duran who often competes for minutes in the club, despite only Erling Haaland and Mo Salah scored more Premier League goals than Watkins since promotion.
There were still a few positive points for Emery to take out of the game, their year -long undefeated milestone aside. Villa fought well and kept their shape after they had fallen to 10 men. For all the possession that Newcastle had, they could still not make many clear opportunities.
And when they had one in the first half, Debutant goalkeeper Marco Bizot was present to keep them out. The 34-year-old, one of the few summer signing sessions, hit an early attack from Anthony Elanga before he cherished Gordon's efforts around the post.
His antics late to run down the clock, including pretending he rolls the ball to every defenders before he starts him on the field before his eight-year-old-wasteing counter was tapped to zero, suggested that the spirit of Emi Martinez still lives between the villa sticks.