English Premier
2025-05-25 - Manchester United vs Aston Villa
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 25th May 2025 - Kick Off 4pm
This game is live on TV
Manchester United
The hopes of all Manchester United fans travelling to Bilbao on Wednesday was that the team would rally and put in a big enough performance to win the Europa League and earn a place in the financially rewarding Champions League. Instead the 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur means Manchester United will miss European Football altogether for only the second time since 1990.
Manager Ruben Amorim retains the support of the board, but the pressure is really going to intensify if Manchester United make a poor start to next season. Things may feel they can only get better with the team struggling in 16th place in the Premier League table, but there is no guarantee of that having slipped further and further over the last couple of years. Underlying the struggles is the really poor 6-3-9 record at Old Trafford.
Manchester United have lost 4 of their last 5 games in all competitions and have won none of their last 8 Premier League games in what has been a nightmare of a campaign. Since beating relegated Ipswich Town 3-2, Manchester United have not won any of 4 League games played at Old Trafford and have lost 2 in a row here to Wolves and West Ham United.
Matthijs de Ligt is a doubt and there are likely going to be wholesale changes to the first eleven.
Aston Villa
A strong run of Premier League form following the FA Cup Semi Final defeat to Crystal Palace has given Unai Emery and his Aston Villa team a chance of returning to the Champions League with a top five Premier League finish. They will go into the final weekend needing to win and hoping one of the three teams above them fail to win, although Emery and the players can only concentrate on snapping a poor record against Manchester United.
Following Manchester City's win over Bournemouth, Aston Villa are 6th in the Premier League table and 2 points behind the aforementioned City in 3rd. With the poorest of the goal differences around them, The Villans need to win and hope either Newcastle United or Chelsea fail to do the same OR Manchester City lose at Craven Cottage. The main part of Aston Villa's job is winning and improving the 8-2-8 away record.
Aston Villa have won 13 of their last 16 games in all competitions, and that run is even more impressive when solely factoring in Premier League games having won 8 of 9 in the top flight. The side have won 4 of their last 5 away League games with the exception being the 2-1 loss at the Etihad Stadium.
Jacob Ramsey is back from a suspension, while Youri Tielemans is a doubt. Marcus Rashford has likely played his last game in the claret and blue of Aston Villa.
Head to Head
The match at Villa Park ended goalless back in October.
That result means Aston Villa have won 1 of their last 8 against Manchester United in all competitions and none of the last 5 under Unai Emery.
Manchester United came from 0-2 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 here last season and have won 4 in a row at Old Trafford against this opponent.
Prediction
There are some head to head runs of form between opponents that can be tough to explain and you have to believe Unai Emery is aware of the issues his Aston Villa team have had against Manchester United.
His first ever game as manager of Aston Villa ended in a 3-1 win, but they have not won any of 5 against Manchester United since then and have lost 4 of those games, including all 3 at Old Trafford.
Of course the situation around the final day means Emery may not have a much better opportunity to guide his team to a win at Old Trafford following the Europa League Final loss suffered by Manchester United.
Once again the lack of composure in the final third proved to be extremely costly and Ruben Amorim may feel he is under some pressure. He is still likely going to rotate his first eleven after the deflating defeat in Bilbao and Manchester United have not scored in 3 home Premier League games.
They have lost the last 2 against Wolves and West Ham United and you have to believe this Aston Villa team has enough quality in the final third to secure the maximum points.
Pressure can do a funny thing though and Aston Villa 'need' to win the game, which is always going to make things that much tougher to deal with. The players are very experienced though and Aston Villa should have the attacking players to produce what they need to win the game and hope other results have gone their way in the push for Champions League Football.
Some will want to back Aston Villa to win big, but the situation around their push for a top five finish may see Unai Emery just making sure he has things locked down defensively if his team are winning. He will have seen Tottenham Hotspur, a poorer defence, manage to do that effectively enough and it may just pay off to back the visiting team to become the tenth to win at Old Trafford in the Premier League this season.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Manchester United 0-2 Aston Villa
