Manchester United 2:1 Aston Villa

Lucky McLuckerson · Dec 29, 2020

..............VS....................

Date - Friday, January 1 2021
Kickoff Time - 2000 Hrs GMT
Venue - Old Trafford, Manchester

League form guide

2. Manchester United DWWDW
5. Aston Villa: WDWWD

Previous Meetings

Aston Villa 0—3 Manchester United

Manchester United 2—2 Aston Villa

Manchester United 1—0 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 0—1 Manchester United

Manchester United 3—1 Aston Villa

All-Time League Record

Manchester United wins: 86
Aston Villa wins: 43
Draws: 39

Pre-Match Pressers

Ole Gunnar Solskjær

Dean Smith

Team News

Manchester United

Edinson Cavani and Marcos Rojo ruled out. Victor Lindelöf doubtful.

Aston Villa

Trézéguet ruled out. Wesley doubtful.

Know the opposition

Aston Villa Football Club (nicknamed Villa, The Villa, The Villans, and The Lions) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham. The club were formed in March 1874, by four members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel. The four founders were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. The first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. The club were soon playing the modern version of football though and won its first FA Cup in 1887. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the club's directors, William McGregor being the league's founder. Aston Villa emerged as the most successful English club of the Victorian era

Villa are one of only five English clubs to have won the European Cup, in 1981–82. They have also won the Football League First Division seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Aston Villa had also spent 105 seasons in the top tier of English football. The only club to have spent longer in the top flight are Everton, with 116 seasons, making Aston Villa versus Everton the most-played fixture in English top-flight football. Aston Villa's arch-rivals are Birmingham City, with games between the two clubs known as the Second City Derby. Historically though, West Bromwich Albion have arguably been Villa's greatest rivals. Villa also enjoy less heated local rivalries with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City. Aston Villa have been playing their home games at Villa Park since 1897.

Referee

Michael Oliver.

tomaldinho1 · Dec 29, 2020

Ole's first real test

charlenefan · Dec 29, 2020

Another home game :nervous:

Another game we dropped points in last season :nervous:

Ole's latest test...

Samid · Dec 29, 2020

Ole's first test of the year

Ali Dia · Dec 29, 2020

Same again? 1-0 1-1

To be fair if we still had some pedigree you’d take winning a few games ugly to keep us in the hunt...

charlenefan · Dec 29, 2020

Samid said:
Ole's first test of the year

the hea · Dec 29, 2020

DDG
AWB Bailly Maguire Telles
Caicedo Fred
Diallo Bruno Rashford
Martial

Riz · Dec 29, 2020

Fred, McT and Shaw straight back in you’d imagine.

Would start Martial and rest Cavani as well.

Bruno and Rashford also need resting but it’s difficult to bench them with how influential they are. Possibly VdB for Bruno but we’ve seen how blunt we look without him and it’s a very tough opponent again.

Raw · Dec 29, 2020

Best XI for this. Villa are no joke this season.

Gordon S · Dec 29, 2020

Can Bruno play again? We absolutely need him but an injury to him now could be the end of the fun this season.

Bwuk · Dec 29, 2020

Assuming City game gets postponed I’d go as strong as possible. We’ll have a break after this till Watford.

AWB needs to get his finger out, he’ll need to mark Grealish.

I think Ole will pick...

De Gea
AWB - Bailly - Maguire -
McTominay - Fred
Rashford - Bruno - Martial
Cavani

DWelbz19 · Dec 29, 2020

Barely 3 days away. fecking hell the games come thick and fast. :lol:

Hugh Jass · Dec 29, 2020

This is going to be another tough watch. Have to play our best team again.

ManRed · Dec 29, 2020

Bruno was exhausted at the end so would expect VDB for Bruno with Mct and Fred returning to the squad.

Cavani - Martial
Telles - Shaw
Pogba - Scott
Matic - Fred
Bruno - VDB

Jacob · Dec 29, 2020

The team should be...

@charlenefan

Havak · Dec 29, 2020

Most likely a few changes, bar the undroppables and couple of others:

de Gea
Wan-Bissaka Bailly Maguire Shaw
McTominay Fred
Greenwood Bruno Rashford
Martial

Would be pretty confident in this. Bailly and Maguire looked good for most of the last two games, no reason to change it even if Lindelof is fit IMO. I'd play Lindelof against City if that game goes ahead. Shaw back in from the start with McFred in midfield for the energy.

Villa will give us more space than Wolves, but they have been good defensively and have good keeper too. Still think we'll have enough.

2-1 United.

Ideally we can find space to sub Bruno and Rashford for Donny & Cavani... Depends how seriously Ole is going to take the City game. Would be ideal if we know it is definitely not postponed first.

DRM · Dec 29, 2020

Think they'll do us. Crashing down to earth after the dizzy highs of 2nd

el3mel · Dec 29, 2020

Urgh barely any time to rest. It'll be a job of grinding a result here as well. They're a damn good team so it'll be tough. Just nick it and move on to the Liverpool game.

Rustyspider13 · Dec 29, 2020

This'll be a battle of chance creation between Bruno and Grealish. Hopefully our forwards get the job done and El Ghazi and Watkins leave their shooting boots at home.

DDG
AWB Bailly Maguire Shaw
McT Fred
Greenwood Bruno Rashford
Martial

Don't think Cavani is starting after 90 mins today. Mata/VdB might come in for Rashford/Greenwood if they aren't well rested. Unfortunately for Bruno, I don't see him getting a rest before the Watford game, he is too good.

Gerald G · Dec 29, 2020

De Gea
AWB--Bailly--Maguire--Shaw
Fred--Pogba
VdB/Greenwood--Bruno--Rashford
Martial

Rest Bruno and Rashford in our next game which will likely be Watford in the FA Cup.

Annihilate Now! · Dec 29, 2020

They're a good, organised side and should pose a threat to our defence.

Will be a tough game but I fancy us to nick it.

Offside · Dec 29, 2020

Again, all about 3 points over the Christmas break. Any win will do.

Alemar · Dec 29, 2020

the hea said:
DDG
AWB Bailly Maguire Telles
Caicedo Fred
Diallo Bruno Rashford
Martial

Good line up that is.

Giggsy13 · Dec 29, 2020

Don’t care how we win just get the damn 3 points so we’re perfectly set up to end the dippers unbeaten run at anfield.

spiriticon · Dec 29, 2020

This is some tough run isn't it?

Leicester, Wolves, Aston Villa, Liverpool

Wumminator · Dec 29, 2020

There’s not been many red cards in our matches this season.

PoTMS · Dec 29, 2020

the hea said:
DDG
AWB Bailly Maguire Telles
Caicedo Fred
Diallo Bruno Rashford
Martial

Harsh on Upamecano and Sancho.

Shane88 · Dec 29, 2020

Grealish

.

boxykronikle · Dec 29, 2020

We will nick this one and putting on pressure to Pool.

Also, can we buy Grealish on the first day of 2021?

always_hoping · Dec 29, 2020

Villa have the extra day rest for this game so I presume another 5 or 6 changes will be made to the United starting 11.

Never liked January 1st games, 4-1 defeats to Spurs, QPR and more recently a 2-0 loss to Arsenal so hopefully this is one of the more pleasing New Year day games.

hellhunter · Dec 29, 2020

spiriticon said:
This is some tough run isn't it?

Leicester, Wolves, Aston Villa, Liverpool

With a bit of City in the cup mixed in.

Robindinho · Dec 29, 2020

Bruno looks knackered, so maybe a chance for the Beek...

De gea

Awb
Bailly
Maguire
Shaw

Fred
McT
VdB

Greenwood
Martial
Rashford

Rozay · Dec 29, 2020

Bwuk said:
Assuming City game gets postponed I’d go as strong as possible. We’ll have a break after this till Watford.

AWB needs to get his finger out, he’ll need to mark Grealish.

I think Ole will pick...

De Gea
AWB - Bailly - Maguire -
McTominay - Fred
Rashford - Bruno - Martial
Cavani

You don’t suppose he’ll play a left-back by any chance, no?

P-Nut · Dec 29, 2020

Expect games to get called off pretty soon, heard them mention it before the game tonight. Play full strength for this one and rest after that if we need to.

TrustInJanuzaj · Dec 29, 2020

I feel much more confident about this game than I did against wolves. I can’t see these keeping our attack out.

bondsname · Dec 29, 2020

spiriticon said:
This is some tough run isn't it?

Leicester, Wolves, Aston Villa, Liverpool

It seems like every run of games are difficult these days.

Mcking · Dec 29, 2020

TrustInJanuzaj said:
I feel much more confident about this game than I did against wolves. I can’t see these keeping our attack out.

They have kept eight cleansheets in 14 games. They are solid at the back with an unreal keeper.

Okey · Dec 30, 2020

Already looking forward to this one. Will be a very different, more open game than Wolves. Win this and the game at Anfield will be huuuge. The build up alone will be exhausting. Gotta go with the strongest line up, just like Villa are doing. Hopefully start well this time so we can make changes without chasing the game.

RuudTom83 · Dec 30, 2020

Ole has managed this busy period well so far, and with Fred and McTom fully rested tonight the midfield should be fresh for Villa.

Sadly Bruno is the one player who you can’t rest...but Ole could easily shuffle the forward line in front of him.

Red00012 · Dec 30, 2020

ManRed said:
Bruno was exhausted at the end so would expect VDB for Bruno with Mct and Fred returning to the squad.

Cavani - Martial
Telles - Shaw
Pogba - Scott
Matic - Fred
Bruno - VDB

Bruno isn’t going to be dropped for this one pal :lol:

FA Premier League

Manchester United 2:1 Aston Villa

Old Trafford

Closed

The saviour of our season (ask Maradona10)

Full Member

Far less insightful than the other Charley

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir

Full Member

Far less insightful than the other Charley

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

Correctly predicted Portugal to win Euro 2016

Shave Dass

Full Member

Full Member

Pokemon master

New Member

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

...or later, I'm not fussy

Euro 2016 sweepstake winner

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

The Qatar Pounder

Full Member

Actually Nostradamus

Full Member

Full Member

Eurofighter

Full Member

Master of Hindsight

fan of well-known French footballer Fabinho

'Liverpool are a proper club'

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

Full Member

Man of the Match

Runners-up

Player Ratings

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Score Predictions

Detailed Results

Match Stats

Referee

Man Utd Lineup

Substitutes