How United will have to forget van Persie and battle against Villa
Manchester United travel to Villa Park on Sunday looking to stop the rot and prevent their winless league run stretching to five games. Fresh from their midweek European win over Shakhtar, David Moyes will be looking to kickstart his sides season following last week’s back to back home defeats that left them in 9th place in the Premier League. Their hosts, Aston Villa, sit two places behind in 11th and are also looking to bounce back, having suffered a 2-0 defeat to struggling Fulham in their last outing.
Team News:
Aston Villa:
Villa are without influential midfielder Fabian Delph through suspension, as the the midfielder picked up his fifth booking of the season in their last fixture. They are also likely to be without injured trio Ron Vlaar, Libor Kozak and Joe Bennett, but Antonio Luna could return.
Predicted Line-Up:Guzan, Bacuna, Herd, Clark, Baker, Westwood, Sylla, El Ahmadi, Weimann, Agbonlahor, Benteke
Manchester United:
United have Wayne Rooney, who sat out the Newcastle defeat, back from suspension but are without the injured Robin Van Persie. Patrice Evra is a doubt, having sat out training in the early part of the week and missed the Shakhtar game. Alex Buttner is waiting in the wings to step in, should the French international not recover in time. Nemanja Vidic is also a doubt for United, who will definitely be without Maroune Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher.
Predicted Line-Up: De Gea, Rafael, Evans, Vidic, Evra. Jones, Cleverley, Januzaj, Kagawa, Rooney, Hernandez
Recent Form:
Neither side come into the fixture on the back of a great run of form. Aston Villa are tenth in the form rankings over the last five games, whilst United are 13th. Villa have won two and drawn two of their last five, but lost their last game 2-0 to Fulham. United’s form is well documented and they come into the game having lost their last two and drawn the two prior to those fixtures.
Players to Watch:
Aston Villa – Christian Benteke
Despite an injury disrupted season, Benteke is Villa’s top scorer with four goals this season. Whilst he hasn’t scored since September, he showed some signs of improvement against Fulham. He saw two efforts saved and missed the target with a further attempt, and could be the man that Villa look for to pile further misery upon United. Benteke has also won 92 headed duels this season – more than any other player in the league
Manchester United – Wayne Rooney
With back to back 1-0 home defeats, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that United are lacking in cutting edge at the moment. United’s Van Persie/Rooney partnership has not started since the win over Arsenal – their last victory in the Premier League. Van Persie had looked to be returning to the side to add goal threat, but has now been ruled out until the New Year. This leaves the goalscoring burden on Rooney, who missed last weekend’s game with Newcastle through suspension.
Rooney has eight goals and five assists this season, meaning that he has either scored or assisted 59% of United’s 22 league goals this season. In the absence of Van Persie, Rooney’s return could be key to scoring that goals that will take the pressure off of the rest of David Moyes’s creaking side.
Prediction:
United have been poor recently and have struggled to dominate games and create goalscoring oppurtunities. However they will fancy their chances of improving upon this recent record today, against a Villa defence that is missing captain Ron Vlaar. They should have enough to see off an Aston Villa side that are often poor at Villa Park.
Villa 1-2 Man United