Premier League preview: Aston Villa v Manchester United
Thrills, spills and goalmouth action. None of which were on show in the Manchester derby at Eastlands on Wednesday night, but there was plenty at Villa Park, where Aston Villa eventually overcame Blackpool in a five-goal thriller.
Since the game much has been made about the starting line-up named by Blackpool boss Ian Holloway, but what about the selection problems faced by Gérard Houllier at the moment? You’d have to be an expert on Midlands football to confidently predict the Aston Villa XI tomorrow, a side that is likely to include youngsters Barry Bannan, Ciaran Clark, Marc Albrighton and Nathan Delfouneso. One such expert has no qualms about their inclusions though.
“The young lads have all come in and done superbly well,” said Welsh international defender James Collins, Wednesday’s match winner and one of Villa’s veterans these days at the ripe old age of 27.
“They are young players but I think they are coping with the pressure very well. This is why they are playing in the Premier League. When you are young you dream about playing against teams like Manchester United.”
Playing against Manchester United would have been one of the factors that brought Houllier back to English football, but the former Liverpool boss could hardly have imagined the injury problems that he would face upon his return to the Premier League.
With Emile Heskey, John Carew, Stiliyan Petrov, Nigel Reo-Coker, Steve Sidwell and Carlos Cuellar all unavailable, Houllier takes on an opponent he enjoys beating above all others while severely short-handed, not that that will dampen his enthusiasm.
“We will beat Manchester United one day, I can promise you that,” said Houllier in the aftermath of his Liverpool side’s contentious 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in March 2000. The Reds went on to beat United the next five times they played them, before beating Sir Alex Ferguson’s men in a League Cup final for good measure.
Repeating that kind of success with his current team may be beyond the Frenchman, particularly with the problems he’s facing with an unfamiliar squad. Problems that aren’t faced by tomorrow’s opposite number, who constantly manages players who weren’t even born when he started his job.
In 24 years at the helm, Ferguson can’t have seen many duller Manchester derbies, but he’d have been happy with his side’s point on Wednesday night, even though it has seen them slip further behind Chelsea at the summit of the Premier League. The players would have taken the draw before the game too, even if some of them have a distorted view of events.
“As a team we dominated the match for long spells and played some excellent football at times,” said Michael Carrick, who provided one of very few moments of semi-interest at Eastlands with a late deflected effort.
“So we're pleased with our performance, but I’m frustrated we didn't win.
“We believe we will become stronger as the season goes on. So far we have let a lot of points slip, when our performances deserved better results. That's a tad frustrating but at the same time we are still unbeaten after a long run of games which fills us with confidence, we are defending well as a team too. Hopefully we can get it right on Saturday against Aston Villa and come away with all three points.”
Positive stuff from the midfielder, but while that unbeaten stat is all well and good, the flip side of it is that United have only won one of six Premier League away games this season.
Villa aren’t the only ones with problems either, as Paul Scholes misses out through suspension, Rafael is out with a dead leg and Patrice Evra’s ankle injury makes him doubtful.
Drawing away from home has come as easily to Ferguson as banning journalists from press conferences, and he could be set to pick up another one here.
The hosts’ youthful optimism is backed up by Houllier’s voice of experience, and that can be enough to snatch a point.
Prediction: Aston Villa 1 Man Utd 1
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