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Eddie Howe is now taking questions, and he says Bruno Guimaraẽs could feature against Aston Villa after suffering an injury against PSV in midweek. “Reasonably positive after the game, so we will give him every chance this weekend,” the Newcastle manager said.

Howe added that Dan Burn is back in training after suffering a punctured lung during December’s derby defeat to Sunderland – and was tight-lipped on transfers, saying the club “won’t panic” but will have to be guided by their PSR situation this month.

Nottingham Forest’s first European adventure for almost 30 years was supposed to be a hoot but the mood music that accompanied a slender defeat in Braga felt rather alarming. The fact is Forest failed to perform and a stale display was typified by the chain of errors that culminated in the captain, Ryan Yates, scoring an own goal that proved sufficient to earn the hosts victory.

A swell of the 2,100 away fans who made the trip to northern Portugal relayed their feelings to Sean Dyche and his squad, jeering the players on several occasions. At full time the question on supporters’ lips was a slightly more direct version of: what on earth was that?

Roger Federer, an ardent Basel supporter, was up in the stands, in the posh seats to be precise, but even he could surely ignore his allegiances and appreciate the grace with which Youri Tielemans clinched victory for Aston Villa.

Unai Emery turned to Tielemans at half-time and the midfielder delivered within eight minutes, his classy first-time finish regaining the lead, after Evann Guessand’s early strike was cancelled out. This represented a 14th victory in their past 16 matches and it felt a significant one, too, given the pileup at the top of the table amid the scrap to advance automatically to the last 16 in March.

• Kalimuendo and Jesus goals give Forest 2-1 away win

• Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros defeat Rangers 2-1

Igor Jesus’s late goal sealed Nottingham Forest a 2-1 win in Utrecht and boosted their hopes of a top-eight finish in the Europa League group phase. Arnaud Kalimuendo’s second-half opener for Forest was cancelled out by the Utrecht substitute Mike van der Hoorn before Jesus stepped off the bench to fire home the visitors’ late winner.

Forest bounced back from last weekend’s disappointing defeat at Everton to secure their third win in this season’s competition – their first on the road – and move on to 11 points after six matches. Murillo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Douglas Luiz returned from injury as Sean Dyche made nine changes from Saturday’s 3-0 loss, and his rejigged side made an impressive start to the first competitive meeting between the two teams.

Two matches is not an adequate window in which to judge a manager. Nonetheless, these are worrying times for Wilfried Nancy and Celtic. Seriously worrying, in truth.

Back-to-back losses since the Frenchman’s arrival would be bad enough without the rampant manner in which Roma ensured six points from six in visits to Glasgow during this season’s Europa League. What a canter this proved from minute one.

Donyell Malen has a cut to the head and two more goals to his name after leading Aston Villa to the verge of automatic qualification for the last 16 of the Europa League against a backdrop of more crowd violence from Young Boys supporters.

The Netherlands striker exemplifies Villa’s strength in depth but this 10th win in 12 games was marred by visiting fans ripping up seats, throwing missiles at stewards and Villa players – one striking Malen – and fighting with police.

“Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that,” came the chant as Nottingham Forest supporters, not for the first time, enjoyed getting one over on Malmö. A lot has happened since Trevor Francis’s stooping header to clinch the European Cup in Munich in 1979 but Forest still cherish those days. A lot has also changed in the five weeks since Sean Dyche took the reins, Forest reinvigorated and a comfortable win thanks to goals by Arnaud Kalimuendo, Ryan Yates and Nikola Milenkovic enhanced their hope of qualifying for the Europa League knockout phase.

For Forest, this victory – against a Malmö side that had not played for almost three weeks after finishing sixth in their domestic league – represented a third straight win in all competitions and further built on the momentum gained from last weekend’s success at Liverpool. This was a re-run of Forest’s European Cup triumph in name but the game itself was free of any jeopardy or jitters.

• Martin O’Neill’s side win 3-1 in Rotterdam

• Roma end Midtjylland’s perfect start to Europa League

Martin O’Neill wrote a memorable final postscript in his history with Celtic in Europe as the interim manager led his team to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord.

Goals from Yang Hyun-jun and Reo Hatate saw Celtic come from behind before half-time and substitute Benjamin Nygren added a late third as the Scottish champions revived their Europa League campaign.

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Villa cling on for the victory and go level on points with leaders Midtjylland at the top of the league phase standings. Gosh, the English side made hard work of that at the end.

Young Boys give themselves a lifeline through Monteiro but only have four more minutes of stoppage time to find an equaliser!

The final remains curious in a Celtic context because it is the showpiece occasion the club would rather forget

It feels cruel in part to use Thursday’s meeting of Feyenoord and Celtic to reflect upon illustrious times. The Dutch side are 29th in the 36-team Europa League table, with Celtic’s position in 27th only more slightly more palatable to supporters because Rangers are bottom of the pile.

Those fans disrupted an annual general meeting to the point of abandonment last week, demonstrating the disharmony that has engulfed Celtic for months. A club that progressed to the Champions League’s knockout phase playoffs last season, looking an overdue but serious European force, have starkly regressed. Celtic have the spending power to outshine clubs who routinely embarrass them in a bigger pond than St Mirren and Motherwell occupy.