Match Preview: Aston Villa v Manchester United

Who are we playing?
Manchester United on Saturday 20th December at 3pm

Where are we playing?
Villa Park

Can I go?
Tickets remain available

Easy to get to?
Should be an absolute doddle, though the German Market and Christmas Shoppers can mean it's a bit hectic if you have to go through town.

Can I watch it on telly?
Saturday 3 o'clocker, so not officially available on UK telly, though there are plenty of web streams and loads of pubs will screen the game live.

Big game?
Huge.

Louis Van Gaal may have been criticised for failing to strengthen defensively when he spunked loads of cash on new players, but it's still early days for his version of United and he has a staggering array of attacking talent at his disposal.

Way too early to judge Van Gaal as yet but it's clear he has his team heading in the right direction and this despite being badly hampered by injuries.

Villa's mini-winning streak came to an end at The Hawthorns with a typically negative performance from Lambert's charges. The sending off of Richardson probably didn't help matters but a poor Albion team were there for the taking and until we went a goal behind, we didn't seem to be trying that hard.

Ten goals for sixteen games is a ludicrously poor state of affairs, but Lambert seems oblivious, still bandying the word "excellent" about while his team seem to lack any sort of creativity.

Benteke is being forced to feed off scraps and he deserves better.

We certainly do.

Do United have any famous fans? 
Well there's Simply Red's Mick Hucknall and Countdown brainbox Rachel Riley

We've got fiddle playing scruffbox Nigel Kennedy.

So we win.




Who's playing for us?

Alan Hutton

Richardson's red card rules him out, Cleverley can't play as he is still on United's books (and he'd have missed the game due to suspension any way) while Alan Hutton is ruled out having chalked up five bookings.


Fabian Delph is a likely starter having returned from the bench while Ron Vlaar will hopeful of reinstatement to the the starting line up if he can dislodge the Okore-Clark partnership.



Who's playing for them?
United are praying that Marcos Rojo is fit in time with Daley Blind and Luke Shaw currently unavailable and Jonny Evans and Jones having just returned.

He said, She said
coming soon

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• United have beaten us 95 times while we have 49 wins. There have been 35 draws.

• 19 long years have passed since we beat United at Villa Park in a league match, a desperate state of affairs.Ian Taylor was amongst the Villa scorers as we ran out 3-1 winners in the infamous "You can't win anything with kids" game. David Beckham came off the bench to score United's consolation.

• Our last win against United was five years ago at Old Trafford, Gabby Agbonlahor with the only goal.

Prediction
Going for a 3-0 United win.