Report: Villa 0-1 United

Spawny Manchester United took all the points at Villa Park thanks to a lucky deflection and a post.

Nice One @BruceRioch4

Almost forgotten Adnan Januzaj, recalled by Louis van Gaal at the expense of Ashley Young, scored the only goal for the dirty glory hunters, who find themselves at the top of the table until the rest of the weekend's fixtures play out.

Villa had looked lively early doors, backed by a packed Villa Park, despite the traffic nightmare which made travel to he ground a nightmare, but in spite of the best efforts of Ashley Westwood to put United under, the visitors stood resolute in the opening minutes.

Bugger

Juan Mata was always a danger and set up the first clear chance of the game with a lovely through ball for Memphis. However, the Dutchman stumbled and let us off the hook.

United should have gone ahead when a Memphis free kick found Morgan Schneiderlin unmarked, but his header lacked power.

The jammy gits took the lead on 29 minutes as Mata found Januzaj whose right-footed shot deflected off Ciaran Clark and went in off the far post.

As many of the Villa faithful were trooping down the steps in search of a half time pint, we had a massive shout for a penalty as Matteo Darmian got a bit WWE with Micah Richards, but Mike Fucking Dean waved away the howls of Villa protest.

Shout for a pen

There was a decent chance for Ayew after Mata displayed poor distribution  but his resulting effort flew well over the bar. 

Our best chance of an equaliser came early in the second half as Gabby was left with a free header in the United box, but Sergio Romero was able to tip his close-range effort away.

Memphis could have put the game beyond doubt as he was left with only Guzan to beat, but dragged his shot wide.

Tim Sherwood spoke after the game: “The goal was a little bit flukey.

“We left Juan Mata with too much space and Januzaj does very well but they get the deflection which goes for them and then you have an uphill task.

“I thought the boys gave everything for the cause but we didn’t carry enough of an attacking threat unfortunately.

“But many of our new signings are still acclimating to England, let alone the Premier League. It is going to take time but we knew that, they will improve.

“I think we will be OK and alright. I am not too disheartened.

“I don’t take winning on Saturday out of proportion and I don’t think losing tonight to United with a couple of World Cup winners is going to destroy my confidence either.

“When Rudy got on we were a bit obsessed about lumping the ball up to him.

“They took their backline back but there was also a lot of space in front of them and that is where we have to recognise we can pass the ball. There are a lot of things to improve on.”