Aston Villa vs Manchester United Betting Pick | English Premier

English Premier

2011-12-03 - Aston Villa vs Manchester United

A Sports Betting Pick by Auls

Aston Villa v Manchester United
Football: English Premier League
Saturday 3 December 2011 - Kick Off 5:30pm
This game is live on TV

Aston Villa

Aston Villa will be hoping to finish best of the rest as it already looks like the top 7 teams in the Premier League have created separation from the rest of the pack. Alex McLeish is still trying to win over the fans' affections, although the style of play has been criticised in some quarters.

The team are 8th in the Premier League, having gained 16 points from their opening 13 games after securing a 0-0 draw at Swansea last week. Villa have been the draw specialists of the League so far, with over half their games ending in draws. They are 3-2-1 at Villa Park this season, scoring 10 goals and conceding 6.

Villa have won just 1 of their last 6 Premier League games and they come into this one having failed to score in their last 2 games. The team have won 2 of their last 3 games at Villa Park, although those wins have been split by a defeat to West Brom. They have conceded at least 2 goals in their last 2 home games.

Stiliyan Petrov should return to the side after missing the game last week. There are no other new injury worries for McLeish.

Manchester United

Sir Alex Ferguson apologised to the fans that had come to Old Trafford during the week only to see the home team put on a flat performance that led to a 1-2 loss to Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup. There were a number of players that are unlikely to be given another chance in the famous red shirt, but at least the usual starters will be restored in this game.

Manchester United remain 2nd in the Premier League, and are once again 5 points behind Manchester City in the table after the latter secured a 1-1 draw at Anfield last weekend. The Red Devils will look to improve their away record that reads 4-2-0 so far this season, scoring 11 goals and conceding 3. The key to the success away from home has come from having the best away defence in the League so far.

It is a surprise that United have drawn their last 3 games in all competitions (within 90 minutes), especially considering they played all those games at Old Trafford. They are unbeaten in their last 8 games in all competitions, but goals have become a recent problem with the team only scoring more than 1 goal in 2 of their last 7 games. United have won 4 away games in a row in all competitions, keeping clean sheets in each game.

The injury list at Old Trafford continues to increase, with Rafael, Fabio and Dimitar Berbatov all missing this trip to the Midlands. Those 3 players join Danny Welbeck, Michael Owen, Anderson and Tom Cleverley on the sidelines. Sir Alex Ferguson should restore the team that started against Newcastle last week following the midweek debacle.

Head to Head

Aston Villa and Manchester United have drawn their last 3 games at Villa Park, while the latter have not lost a League game there since the opening game of the 1995/96 season.

Goals have been hard to come by in general between these teams in games at Villa Park, with 6 of the last 9 finishing with 2 goals or less.

Prediction

This is the late afternoon live game for audiences, and I am not sure it will be the most entertaining of affairs.

Both sides will likely go with a cautious approach to the game- Alex McLeish has set his side up in a hard to beat manner in the majority of games this season, while United have settled for a tough streak in their recent away games.

United have been able to restore their centre back partnership and that has led to much more solid performances, as shown in games against Newcastle, Swansea, Sunderland and Everton. Barring a ridiculous decision by the linesman, United would be coming into this one with 4 straight clean sheets in the Premier League.

Villa have been free-scoring at home, but I think they will want to prevent United playing their football and rely on a counter-attacking philosophy to earn the victory. Their lack of goals is an issue and I can see this being tight enough to take a chance on the 'Under 2.5 Goals' at odds against.

The Statistics :

ASTON_VILLA LAST SIX HOME FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-11-05	W	3-2	H v Norwich
	2011-10-22	L	1-2	H v WBA
	2011-10-01	W	2-0	H v Wigan
	2011-09-17	D	1-1	H v Newcastle
	2011-08-27	D	0-0	H v Wolves
	2011-08-20	W	3-1	H v Blackburn

MAN_UTD LAST SIX AWAY FORM
	DATE	RESULT		OPPOSITION
	2011-11-19	W	0-1	A v Swansea
	2011-10-29	W	0-1	A v Everton
	2011-10-15	D	1-1	A v Liverpool
	2011-09-24	D	1-1	A v Stoke_City
	2011-09-10	W	0-5	A v Bolton
	2011-08-14	W	1-2	A v WBA

HEAD TO HEAD ASTON_VILLA v MAN_UTD
DATE	HOME	SCORE	AWAY
2010-11-13	Aston_Villa	2-2	Man_Utd
2010-02-10	Aston_Villa	1-1	Man_Utd
2008-11-22	Aston_Villa	0-0	Man_Utd
2007-10-20	Aston_Villa	1-4	Man_Utd
2006-12-23	Aston_Villa	0-3	Man_Utd
2005-12-17	Aston_Villa	0-2	Man_Utd