Aston Villa v Manchester United Preview (Sunday 15th December)
The pressure is mounting on David Moyes after Manchester United were beaten 1-0 by Newcastle, their second consecutive home defeat in the Premiership. Only three days earlier, United had suffered defeat at home to the new manager’s former club Everton and are now well adrift in the title race.
Few expected it to be an easy transition after the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, but they are now languishing in ninth place. Ironically, they have enjoyed a far more successful time in the Champions League and are safely through to the knockout phase after a crushing 5-0 victory at Bayer Leverkusen. That win, their biggest away from home in Europe since 1964, was enough to guarantee a place in the last sixteen with a game to spare.
Their total dominance against the German side gave little indication of the alarming slump that was to come. Their 1-0 victory over league leaders Arsenal in early November is already a distant memory having picked up only two points in four subsequent matches.
They conceded an injury-time goal to draw 2-2 at Cardiff before Wayne Rooney scored twice to earn them a point at Tottenham. The absence of Wayne Rooney through a one-match suspension proved extremely costly against Newcastle. United’s leading scorer has been the driving force this season despite his reported unrest during the summer and links with a possible move to Chelsea.
Aston Villa temporarily halted Southampton’s march up the table with a stunning 3-2 victory at St Mary’s. Manager Paul Lambert was dismissive of the fact that the statistics suggested that Southampton had been the better side, preferring to concentrate on his side’s clinical finishing as the decisive factor.
Goals by Agbonlahor, Kozak and Delph were enough to wrestle the points away from the Saints and Villa are only three points adrift of United. Fabian Delph picked up a damaging yellow card in the 2-0 defeat at Fulham and will now miss the United game through suspension.
Better news for Villa fans was the return to the line-up of Belgian International Christian Benteke. If the striker can return to the sort of form that he showed at the end of last season, United will be kept fully employed at the back.
Villa have a poor recent record against United, losing their last five including a comprehensive 3-0 defeat in April when Robin van Persie scored a stunning hat-trick. An even worse statistic for Villa is the fact that they have only beaten United twice in 44 meetings.
Online betting sites have United as clear favourites despite their recent loss of form. There is no doubt that the pressure is firmly on David Moyes and his team to get back to winning ways. Their hopes of retaining the Premiership title are hanging by a thread with some bookmakers now offering as high as 33-1. A defeat at Villa Park on Sunday would effectively put paid to their challenge.
