EPL Preview: Aston Villa vs Manchester United - United's drawing jinx, Villa's injury problems
Manchester United's season so far has been bittersweet. Sweet in the sense that they're riding high in second place and are still the only team yet to taste defeat this season. Bitter in the sense that while they haven't lost a game of football this season,
they've been drawing far too many, many from winning positions too, dropping points like they don't matter. But they do, they are the only thing that matter in this ten month marathon, and be sure that Sir Alex Ferguson knows it.
Manchester United's last match, unsurprisingly, ended up in a draw. Away to Manchester City, their arch neighbourly rivals, neither United nor City could find a way to open the scoring and break the deadlock. So, they played out an immensely boring and highly
frustrating 0-0 draw. Seven draws in all competitions already seem to initiate a theme, a routine, one that Sir Alex would be desperate to curb into a foray of wins. But to start doing that Sir Alex needs a consistent backline, and with injuries restricting
him from fielding a consistent backline time and time again, it seems that the draw fest is destined to continue.
United's game before the City one was against Wolves at home and they just narrowly avoided another stinging draw courtesy of a 93rd minute Ji Sung Park solo goal. The goal that broke Wolves' hearts and also looked set to break the voodoo on his team, but
as the next game proved, it was not to be. With Rooney being a peripheral figure in the scheme of things thus far, United have lacked the strength in depth to cope with the league's vigorous demands. With newbies such as Obertan and Bebe required to play a
telling role in the final say, a dark cloud might just descend over Old Trafford.
Imagine United playing Chelsea in a highly open game at Old Trafford which is delicately poised at 0-0 with 15 minutes to go. As history would have it, United should at least have one world class talent on the bench to go on and coax out a result. But, put
yourself in Sir Alex's shoes, you are caught in just the type of game described above and you look to the bench and you see Obertan, Bebe, Park and Macheda, what do you do? You're probably better off with the players on the pitch than sending any one of these
as they are, simply put, just not good enough to produce the kind of magic required. And that's been United's shortcoming this season, the lack of depth and world class talent has hindered them from building upon their prior successes.
Now, United are without Paul Scholes, Patrice Evra and Raphael for this match. Paul Scholes serving a suspension after picking up five yellow cards this season, and Evra and Raphael falling casualties to an undemanding game against Manchester City.
Villa, on the other hand, are reeling on the back of a 3-2 last minute win against Blackpool on Wednesday night. Further good news for them is that striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has signed a new contract which will keep him at Villa Park for the next four years.
Their win against Blackpool was a much needed sigh of relief as they ended a run of five games without a win and needed great belief to win it late on against Blackpool. They'll certainly be hoping that this result can galvanise them to go on and serve United
their first league defeat of the season.
Stilyian Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Carlos Cuellar, Habib Baye, Fabian Delph, Steve Sidwell, John Carew and Emile Heskey are all out injured for Aston Villa. And with such a long list of first teamers out, the possibility of getting anything off of United
decreases manifold.
Manchester United's jinx for drawing might come to play against them on Saturday but looking at Villa's injury problems, it'd have to be a massively under par performance from United to throw away the three points. So, it'd be safe to guess that United will
win 2-1.
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