BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE
Venue: Villa Park Date: Saturday, 10 November Ko 17:30GMT
TEAM NEWS
Aston Villa’s Karim El Ahmadi returns after a one-match suspension, but defender Eric Lichaj is banned after accumulating five bookings.
Left-back Joe Bennett is struggling with a knee injury so Enda Stevens is in contention, while Darren Bent is still out (ankle).
Central defender Jonny Evans is a minor doubt for Manchester United.
Winger Nani (hamstring) joins Shinji Kagawa, Phil Jones and Nemanja Vidic (all knee) on the sidelines.
MATCH PREVIEW
On Remembrance weekend, Villa Park will pay tribute to Britain’s armed forces with a minute’s silence for those who have fallen. Too often in the past though, Villa have gone AWOL against Manchester United.
Their only victory in 33 meetings came at Old Trafford three years ago. They haven’t beaten them at home since the first day of the 1995-96 season which, incidentally, is the last time a club lost its first game and still won the Premier League title. Ominously, United were beaten in their opening match of this campaign, at Everton.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s team is hitting fluent attacking form now though, and are beginning to look like they might soon dominate games. Villa’s youngsters too often concede the lion’s share of possession. Only twice this season have they bossed the ball, but against West Ham and West Brom they still failed to win either game. They showed youthful zest at Sunderland last weekend, but they’ll have a far harder job getting the ball back from the league leaders if they lose it.
Yet Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark, Matthew Lowton and Andreas Weimann have all caught the imagination of the locals, who are starting to believe in Paul Lambert’s evolution. They’re unbeaten in three games and I can see the pace of Gabby Agbonlahor and the power of Christian Benteke troubling United.
But they’ve won just three home league games in 2012. Surely the table-toppers will have too much experience and finishing power for the home side, even if they did make hard work of that trek to Braga in midweek.
Since 1 January 2010, Robin van Persie has scored a staggering 122 goals in 153 games for club and country. He looks lethal for United, where chances come thick and fast. The Flying Dutchman doesn’t have an outstanding scoring record against Villa, but Wayne Rooney does – 12 goals against the Villans.
If the visitors come out with all guns blazing, I can’t see Villa keeping them out – and once United have the lead, they rarely let points slip away.
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
Aston Villa’s only win in their last 31 league games against Manchester United came courtesy of Gabby Agbonlahor’s goal at Old Trafford in December 2009.
In all competitions, United have lost just one of their last 33 meetings with Villa (W23, D9, L1) since a 3-0 League Cup away defeat in October 1999.
United’s last Premier League defeat at Villa Park came on the opening day of the 1995-96 season. They are unbeaten in 16 subsequent visits (W10, D6).
Aston Villa
They won only their second league match in 20 attempts at Sunderland last weekend. Villa have picked up just 24 points from their 29 games in 2012.
Gabby Agbonlahor’s winner in that match was his first league goal in 29 appearances spanning a year.
The club has not won back-to-back Premier League matches since the final two games of the 2010-11 season (against Arsenal and Liverpool).
Only Sunderland and QPR have scored fewer than Villa’s eight goals.
Manchester United
The Red Devils have won their last 23 Premier League matches after scoring the opening goal.
They have missed the most penalties in the Premier League this season (three). Wayne Rooney has now missed seven out of the 20 penalties he has taken in the Premier League.
Robin van Persie has scored eight goals and registered three assists in 10 Premier League appearances for the club. He has also scored 56 goals in his last 65 league games.
BBC Sport
