It is clear Villa need quality reinforcements - they are without former loanees Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio and are about to sell Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle for £40m - but financial restrictions have ruled Villa's summer transfer spend.

Aston Villa will host rivals Newcastle at home in their opening fixture of the Premier League. Both sides had an impressive campaign last season and will look

However, Alexander Isak will not be in the Newcastle side who face Aston Villa on Saturday and that means a dark cloud continues to hang over the club. Here, we have pulled together some of the questions and our answers from Thursday’s season-preview live Q&A with Newcastle United correspondent Chris Waugh and senior writer George Caulkin.

With Liverpool waiting in the wings, having seen an offer in the region of £110 million ($149.2 million) rejected, Isak has been training separately from his Newcastle teammates for much of the summer and won’t be involved in this weekend’s Premier League opener against Aston Villa.

Aston Villa start their Premier League season against Newcastle United tonight but one player will be notably missing: Emiliano Martínez.