Aston Villa v United Preview

A trip to Villa Park gives United the opportunity to earn three points to keep the gap between ourselves and Manchester City to a closeable one.

Villa, under Alex McLeish, are not in the best of form and I believe they`re ready for the taking.

So let`s get it on United!

The wholesale changes made by Sir Alex in midweek, saw Jonny Evans given the captain`s armband.

Evans who may feature against Villa, was honoured to be given the band, commenting,

"Before the game, I was delighted to be given the armband, but I`d happily take that away to have the victory instead."

Hopefully, against Villa we can get back to winning ways again. A victory would prove to be good medicine as we continue to lick our wounds.

"It`s good that the manager plays the younger lads in the competition but unfortunately, we`ve not managed to get the result."

Alex McLeish will be able to welcome back Stilyan Petrov for this clash after the player missed the encounter with Swansea last time out, with a hamstring problem.

That familiar old war-horse, Emile Heskey (if picked) will make his 500th Premier League appearance, joining five others on that milestone.

The ex-noisy-neighbour defender is a stalwart at the heart of the Villa defence. This no nonsense centre back has a habit of being a no-frills player; watch how many times he clatters either Rooney or Hernandez tomorrow!

After making ten changes for the midweek Carling Cup game against Crystal Palace, a game which we lost, expect Sir Alex to field a far more familiar looking side against Aston Villa.

All the familiar names will be back except for Danny Welbeck who is still troubled by that injury picked up on international duty. Also missing will be the Da Silva twins, Fabio and Rafael, who both have injuries as well as our midfield duo of Anderson and Cleverley.

What are the odds on Ashley joining that long list of players that have played against their former clubs and got on the score-sheet? Many members on the Vital Villa site reckon Ashley will have Alan Hutton for breakfast!

United have a marvelous record against Villa. In the last 29 clashes we`ve lost only once, back in December 2009.

As far as League games go, the record books show that in the last 31 fixtures, United have won 21, drawn 9 and lost the solitary 1.

More of the same please.

United all the way! The only thing under consideration is the margin. I`ll go for 2-0!

We`re in Switzerland in midweek, Basel to be precise as we seek to ensure we qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League after making a bit of a hash of our group so far, courtesy of far to many draws.

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