Manchester United will be back on the road on Thursday evening when the face relegation candidates Aston Villa at Villa Park. United have been in pretty good form since the restart of the season and have recently beaten Bournemouth 5-2 and Brighton and Hove Albion 3-0. Villa find themselves 19th in the Premier League, closer to safety than Norwich City but still likely to be relegated this season, which would be a shame.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will be full of confidence ahead of their trip to Villa Park, after nearly five years since their last match in the iconic traditional stadium. United have not been beaten by Villa since a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford on the 12 December 2009 with Gabby Agbonlahor scoring the only goal of that match. Villa should fear United, which could contribute to their demise.
Manchester United:
De Gea;
Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw;
Matic, Pogba;
Greenwood, Fernandes, Rashford;
Martial
Substitutes:
Romero; Bailly, Williams; Mata, Pereira, Fred, James, McTominay; Ighalo
Aston Villa:
Reina;
Ngoyo, Hause, Mings, Taylor;
El Ghazi, Luiz, McGinn, Trezeguet;
Grealish, Samatta
Substitutes:
Nyland; Lansbury, Makamba, Hourihane, Jota, Guilbert, Elmohamady, Vassilev, Davis
United and Villa have played 49 times in the Premier League with United winning 34, drawing 12 and losing three times. In total, United have scored 89 goals conceding 29. Both United have kept 26 clean sheets with Villa keeping six. United have been awarded three penalties, scoring two, with Villa awarded one and scoring it. In total, United have received 67 yellow cards to Villa’s 67 with both teams having three red cards.
Back in December, it was a 2-2 draw between the two sides at the Theatre of Dreams with Jack Grealish opening the scoring in the 11th minute, Tom Heaton scoring an own goal to equalise in the 42nd minute, then United taking the lead in the 64th minute through Victor Lindelof with Villa equalising through Tyrone Mings in the 66th minute of the match. It was an unfortunate draw for United but a good result for Villa.
