After arguably Villa’s biggest victory in the modern era over Bayern Munich (1-0) midweek, attention now turns to the arrival of Manchester United. Erik ten Hag’s future as United boss hangs in the balance after a lacklustre start to the campaign, whilst Villa under Emery will be looking to take full advantage after a draw against Ipswich last time out.
KEY FACTS
- Man Utd are 13th with just 2 wins from 6.
- Villa are unbeaten in four, with a single loss to Arsenal this term.
- Jhon Duran has scored 5 goals, all as a substitute.
- The Colombian also has 4 in this last 4 at Villa Park.
- Villa have won just 1 of the last 25 games versus Utd at VP.
- However, Unai Emery was the winner of that game, his debut, in 2022.
- Villa have 13 points from the first 6 games, our best since the MON era.
INJURY NEWS
Mings and Kamara continue their recovery from long term ACL injuries. Both are back in training but its too soon to expect either to feature. John McGinn will remain sidelined with a hamstring injury for a number of weeks.
Ones to watch: Leon Bailey appeared far from match fit and found himself a subbed sub against Bayern. Jacob Ramsey overstretched in the same game and appeared to suffer a groin injury that could keep him out. It’s not know what the extent of Amadou Onana’s injury is after picking up a knock in the Champions League win.
The visitors are without Shaw, Loro and Malacia. Hojland, who broke his scoring duck against Villa, is typically back after injury and is expected to feature for misfiring United.
MATCH DETAILS
Kick Off Time: 2pm Sunday [GMT]
Where to watch or stream: Sky Sports / NowTV (Subscription Required) (UK)
PREDICTIONS
There are two obvious factors at play in this fixture. For Villa, will the energy expended in the win over Bayern now come back to bite us? Emery has some options for rotation, but there are also now several injuries amongst the squad. United arrive at Villa Park in underwhelming form and after having drawn Thursday evening against Porto (3-3) in the Europa League. They’ve got less recovery time, must travel back from Portugal and required an injury-time Maguire header to scrape a point.
Score Prediction:
Aston Villa 2-0 Manchester United
Predicted Goalscorers: Ollie Watkins and Youri Tielemans.
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