Sir Alex Ferguson praises Aston Villa for their 'FANTASTIC' performance against Newcastle despite losing 5-1 and explains Unai Emery's side conceded 'bad goals' in defeat Sir Alex Ferguson has heaped praise on Aston Villa after their opening day defeat The legendary Man United hailed Villa for their performance against Newcastle WATCH: 'It's All Kicking Off' - Episode 1 - Mail Sport's brand new football show By Ryan Walker For Mailonline Published: 17:15, 15 August 2023 | Updated: 17:15, 15 August 2023 e-mail 3 View comments Sir Alex Ferguson has named Aston Villa as the side that impressed him most during the opening weekend of the new Premier League season. Unai Emery's side suffered a 5-1 hammering at the hands of Newcastle on Saturday and dropped to the bottom of the league standings after conceding more goals than any other team. Eddie Howe gifted St James' Park with a memorable opening day victory that saw new signing Sandro Tonali get on the scoresheet, alongside Alexander Isak, Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes. However, despite the crushing defeat, legendary Manchester United manager Ferguson heaped praise on Villa for their showing that initially saw Moussa Diaby put the visitors on level terms. Speaking pre-match at United's season-opening win over Wolves on Monday, Ferguson said: 'I watched Aston Villa and Newcastle and I can't believe the scoreline. Sir Alex Ferguson named Aston Villa as the side that impressed him most in the opening weekend of the Premier League seaosn Villa boss Unai Emery watched on helplessly as his side conceded five goals in defeat to Newcastle 'Honestly, Aston Villa played fantastic football and just lost bad goals. Newcastle are going to be very difficult to beat in their own ground and the manager has done a great job there. 'But it's a surprising game football, you can play teams off the fence but don't score and that's what happened to Aston Villa,' he added. On further analysis the 81-year-old makes a convincing argument with possession shared almost equally and Villa having just one less shot than Newcastle over 90 minutes. Ferguson explained Villa played 'fantastic football' despite the heavy defeat at St James' Park A reporter asked Sir Alex Ferguson which team impressed him the most on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. His response might shock some, including myself ? #avfc | #utv | #vtid pic.twitter.com/DobJyDIwl2 — Aston Villa Statto (@AVFCStatto) August 15, 2023 However, they came undone through costly defensive errors, most notably when Ezri Konsa lost possession in his own box to gift Isak his second goal. There was further poor defending on show for Newcastle's fourth and fifth goal when the hosts played through Villa's high defensive line at ease. Injury to centre-back Tyrone Mings made an already difficult task inside a raucous St James' Park even more difficult when the England international was carried off on a stretcher. Emery explained after the match that the injury 'doesn't look good' and there are fears Mings could miss the majority of the Premier League season after damaging his knee ligaments. Share or comment on this article: Sir Alex Ferguson praises Aston Villa for their 'FANTASTIC' performance against Newcastle despite losing 5-1 and explains Unai Emery's side conceded 'bad goals' in defeat e-mail Add comment Comments 3 Share what you think Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all The comments below have not been moderated. View all The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Add your comment Enter your comment By posting your comment you agree to our house rules . Submit Comment Clear Close Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. No Yes Close Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy .