Aston Villa vs Man Utd: Injury News, Preferred Team & Predicted Score

Man Utd travel to Villa Park for Saturday’s evening kick off in the Premiership against Aston Villa. United will look to be getting rid of some patchy form with a win at Villa.

The Reds were denied a win last week against Newcastle controversially and were also shockingly knocked out of the league cup at the hands of Championship side Crystal Palace. However, that was a much different side to the first team that is likely to be sent out against Villa.

Man Utd have a fantastic record against Aston Villa with Villa beating United only once in 31 matches in the league. United look to equal the amount of away wins they achieved in the whole of last season against Villa tomorrow, despite reaching just the start of December.

With Aston Villa changing managers from Gerard Houllier to rival manager Alex McLeish, the Scotsman quickly proved many critics wrong by sending Villa on a seven match unbeaten run at the start of the season. However, their form as of late hasn’t been as impressive.

Villa have only won once in the last six games, with that coming against Norwich at home. However, life after Ashley Young and Stewart Downing for Villa hasn’t been as bad as expected as they are sitting 8^th in the table.

United must be aware of Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor who have been putting regular contributions to the team’s performances. Bent, clinical as always, has scored five goals this season with Agbonlahor living up to his potential he showed so early in his career. The rapid striker has also scored five goals this season, as well as chipping in with a helpful four assists.

Injury News

Injury news for both teams now and Stiliyan Petrov is expected to return for Villa. United have injury concerns as all three substitutes in midweek were all because of injuries. Dimitar Berbatov, Rafael and Fabio were all ruled out of the evening clash in Sir Alex’s Friday morning press conference. Later on, Fergie changed his word on Rafael on MUTV and said “Rafael played his first game and found it difficult with the fitness side of it but he should be okay for the weekend.”

Tom Cleverley, Michael Owen and Anderson are all long term casualties but there is good news for Danny Welbeck who could be in contention. Phil Jones should return after a rest as should Chris Smalling.

There is a special moment for Ashley Young who returns to Villa Park for the first time following his £16m move from Villa to Man Utd and it’s expected that he’ll receive a warm reception by the Villa fans. Stephen Warnock said that Young should get a good reception after his time at Villa, which saw him play 190 times with 38 goals and 63 assists to his name in all competitions.

My team prediction:

De Gea

Jones   Ferdinand   Vidic   Evra

Nani   Fletcher    Giggs    Young

Rooney     Hernandez

Score prediction:

Aston Villa 0-2 Man Utd with Nani and Hernandez scoring. Expect Young to play a pivotal part in this game. Hope everything goes to plan and United pick up three points.