If you watched the Man Utd v Spurs match last weekend, you would probably agree with our view that the Red Devils were abysmal.
The first-half performance was the worst we have seen under the leadership of Erik ten Hag and there must be serious doubts that he will still be in charge for this match.
Over £100 million was spent this summer, but this latest display proved yet again that vast amounts of money doesn’t guarantee success at this level.
It is a different story with Aston Villa. Even though they only managed a draw away at Premier new boys Ipswich on Saturday, they are still sitting pretty at fifth in the table, only two points behind the Premiership leaders, Liverpool.
Odds and Predictions
It is not unusual for a team to bounce back after a dismal performance, but we have seen Man Utd fail to do that so many times recently.
Bearing that in mind, we are surprised by the prices for this match on football betting sites. Aston Villa are favourites at 2.15, the odds on Man Utd are 3.0 and the price for the draw is 3.80.
We would have expected Villa to be odds on, but we are not complaining, all the better for our predictions.
Our first selection for this match is a 3 – 1 win for Villa at amazing odds of 17.0 which has got to be worth a small wager.
For the last one of our tips, it has to be Ollie Watkins in the ‘To Score at Any Time’ market.
He is on fire at the moment and with the international break coming up, he will be keen to impress the England manager, Lee Carsley, who will no doubt have a close eye on this fixture.
We were close to recommending a bet on him being the first scorer at odds of 5.0, but this is obviously the safer option.
Comparison and Statistics
Aston Villa and Manchester United have faced each other H2H 198 times in competitive matches.
Man U have won 106 of these matches, Villa have won 51, with 41 games ending in a draw.
The last five head-to-head matches between the two teams have seen Man U winning four and Villa winning only one.
| Past Meetings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Feb 2024 | aston-villa | 1-2 | manchester-united | Premier League |
| 26 Dec 2023 | manchester-united | 3-2 | aston-villa | Premier League |
| 30 Apr 2023 | manchester-united | 1-0 | aston-villa | Premier League |
| 10 Nov 2022 | manchester-united | 4-2 | aston-villa | EFL Cup |
| 06 Nov 2022 | aston-villa | 3-1 | manchester-united | Premier League |
Expected Line Ups
If there is one player that Man Utd cannot do without, it has to be Bruno Fernandes, but after his harsh sending-off against Spurs at the weekend, he will be missing this match.
For Villa, their influential midfield powerhouse, John McGinn, looks like he will be out until after the international break with a hamstring injury that he picked up against Wolves a couple of weeks ago.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): E. Martinez; Lucas Digne, Diego Carlos, Pau Torres, Ezri Konsa; Amadou Onana, Y. Tielemans; Jacob Ramsey, M. Rogers, Leon Bailey; O. Watkins.
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Andre Onana; Diogo Dalot, M. De Ligt, L. Martinez, N. Mazraoui; Casemiro, M. Ugarte; M. Rashford, C. Eriksen, A. Garnacho; J. Zirkzee.
How Will the Season Pan Out
Even Erik ten Hag’s biggest fans would have to admit that the job as manager of Manchester United has not turned out well for him. Unfortunately, we believe that their only hope of salvaging something from this season would be to put him out of his misery and let someone else have a go.
As one of the biggest clubs in world football, they should be performing to a far higher standard and their fans certainly deserve better.
As for Aston Villa, it would be fair to say that Unai Emery has assembled a team who would run through a brick wall for him and we can see a top four finish, which would be a magnificent achievement.
