English Premier
2025-12-21 - Aston Villa vs Manchester United
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Premier League
Sunday 21st December 2025 - Kick Off 4:30pm
This game is live on TV
Aston Villa
No team in the Premier League can claim to be in stronger form than Aston Villa and the players showed plenty of resilience and character by coming from 1-0 and 2-1 behind in a win at the London Stadium. This keeps them firmly in touch with the only two teams above them in the Premier League table and Aston Villa will be looking to give the home fans an early Christmas present with another League victory on Sunday.
They are 3rd in the Premier League table and just 3 points separates Aston Villa from leaders Arsenal, although they play after The Gunners this weekend and the gap could be bigger at kick off. The Villans have a 6-1-1 record at home where they have scored 13 goals and conceded 6.
Aston Villa have won 9 in a row in all competitions since the 2-0 defeat at Anfield and 6 of those wins have been in the Premier League. In recent weeks it has not mattered where Aston Villa have played as they have piled up the victories and they will be looking for a tenth straight home win in all competitions.
Jadon Sancho cannot be involved against his parent club, while both Emi Martinez and Pau Torres are hoping to be passed fit.
Manchester United
Failures to hold onto a number of leads have proven to be very costly for Manchester United this season and they were perhaps fortunate to earn a 4-4 home draw with Bournemouth when the visiting team missed two big chances in injury time. However, the first half performance did impress Ruben Amorim and Manchester United have pushed through another game without facing a defeat.
They are still 6th in the Premier League table and Manchester United are only 2 points behind Chelsea in the top four, although the standings could look quite different at kick off. The side have a 3-3-2 away record where they have scored and conceded 14 goals.
Manchester United have lost 1 of the last 10 Premier League games since the heavy defeat at Brentford that had seemingly put Ruben Amorim on the brink of being Sacked. However, they have only won 2 of the last 7 fixtures played overall, although some of the stronger results have been produced away from home. In fact, Manchester United are chasing a third straight away victory in the top flight.
Noussair Mazraoui, Amad Diallo and Bryan Mbeumo have all departed for the African Cup of Nations and that is a significant blow. Casemiro is suspended, while both Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire are doubts.
Head to Head
Unai Emery's first game in charge of Aston Villa ended in a 3-1 win over Manchester United, but they have not won any of 6 against them since then and lost 5 of those games.
Last season the game at Villa Park ended goalless and it does mean Aston Villa have won 1 of the last 26 at home against Manchester United.
Prediction
Only one Premier League game is scheduled for Sunday and it features two of the current top six in the table.
However, it has felt like Manchester United are still behind Aston Villa in terms of the development of the team and Unai Emery is more experienced than Ruben Amorim.
That did not help the Spaniard much as Aston Villa were beaten at Old Trafford on the final day of last season, which ultimately cost them an opportunity to play in the Champions League for a second season in a row.
A slow start to this campaign may have been something of a hangover from that result, but Aston Villa are motoring now and this is a team playing with a huge amount of confidence. Even when they have picked up knocks, changes have not affected the performances on the pitch and Aston Villa are rightly favoured for this fixture.
It is an edge that feels stronger in favour of Aston Villa when noting that Manchester United have lost three key players to the African Cup of Nations and also have Casemiro suspended.
Ruben Amorim is trying to make a few shifts to the formation if Monday night is to believed and he got plenty from his Manchester United team going forward. However, they showed the inexperience in the defensive areas with so many older heads missing and this is where Aston Villa will feel they can take advantage.
Aston Villa have not had a lot of success against Manchester United in the last couple of years with Unai Emery and they have been really poor at Villa Park for a lot longer than that. This makes them look a little short as favourite, but the slight edge looks like it should be with Aston Villa considering the players that will be missing in the away squad.
The home team have perhaps been overachieving in some of their recent games by showing a lot more quality with their chances compared with the opponents. This does not feel like it will be sustainable to push Aston Villa into a title challenge, but they have momentum and prior to the win at West Ham United, the side have been showing a lot more going forward.
Ultimately this is what may show up on the day and Aston Villa may have a rare home victory over Manchester United.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester United
