The Reds unfortunately exited the Carabao Cup in midweek but have had a strong start to this league campaign. The Reds have come out on top in the last three in a row, including that convincing away performance at Villa Park back in May, when goals from Bruno Fernandes, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani sealed a 3-1 win and three Premier League points. In the 18 matches since that rare loss, United have won an impressive 14 times and only drawn four. In fact, we need to go back to December 2009 for our last defeat to the claret-and-blues, a 1-0 loss at Old Trafford. In 190 matches between the clubs, United have won 101 of them, while 40 encounters have ended all square and 49 matches went in Villa’s favour. The Reds have got a particularly strong record against Saturday’s visitors. Ex-Red Ashley Young played at Stamford Bridge. Midfielder Morgan Sanson may miss the trip to Manchester after suffering a hamstring injury in the penalty shoot-out defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday, meanwhile winger Trezeguet remains sidelined following knee surgery back in April. Leon Bailey is a major doubt after suffering a quad injury, when scoring in their last league match against Everton. It’s still uncertain whether our Uruguayan centre-forward will be available for selection against Villa.Īs for the visitors, Axel Tuanzebe is ineligible to play due to him being on loan from United.
The manager has more or less a full squad to choose from but Edinson Cavani remained absent in midweek. Phil Jones also made a return to the first-team squad for the first time since our meeting with Tranmere Rovers in January 2020.ĭavid De Gea, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Fred were not involved in the squad but should all be fit and firing going into this weekend’s action. Plenty of players gained valuable game time under the floodlights at Old Trafford, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rotated his whole starting XI for the cup clash on Wednesday.