The victory helped Aston Villa boss Unai Emery reach a landmark as it was his 100th in the Premier League.

The Spaniard would have been delighted with his side's performance, especially as they had two days fewer than their opponents to prepare for this match, having played in the Champions League on Wednesday.

For the first time this season club captain John McGinn did not start a league match, although the Scotland midfielder did come on at the beginning of the second half.

Villa already had the lead by then, after being the better team in the first 45 minutes.

As well as the Johan Manzambi goal and the Emiliano Buendia effort off the woodwork, Nicolas Jackson also had an effort saved by Lukas Hornicek, with Matty Cash later hitting the side-netting.

Manzambi, who turned 21 on Wednesday, has now scored three goals for Villa since joining Emery's side in a club record deal of just over £50m from German side Freiburg.

Villa had opportunities to score a second goal, but substitute Ross Barkley drew a fine save from Hornicek and Ibrahim Mbaye shot wide after a fine run.

But they produced a strong defensive performance to restrict the hosts to one shot on target, to leave the north east with the three points.