At A Glance
Aston Villa begin 2021 at Old Trafford, taking on Manchester United in the Premier League on New Year’s Day.
After an unbeaten December that yielded 11 points from five games, Dean Smith’s side are flying high in fifth place – only four points behind United in second.
A 1-1 draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last time out was Villa’s latest positive result on their travels, and the team have now lost only one of seven away trips in the league this term.
Manchester United are on a nine-match unbeaten run in the league, dating back to a 1-0 home defeat against Arsenal on November 1.
The Red Devils have won seven of those games to shoot up the table – the latest of which was a 1-0 success against Wolves that came courtesy of Marcus Rashford’s stoppage time winner.
Midfielder Bruno Fernandes is undoubtedly the talisman for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team, leading the away with ten goals and seven assists in 15 Premier League appearances.
Standout Stats
Manchester United have lost just one of their last 43 Premier League games against Aston Villa (W31 D11) and are unbeaten in their last 15 since a 0-1 home loss in December 2009.
Aston Villa drew this exact fixture with Man Utd 2-2 last season – they’ve not avoided defeat in consecutive league visits to Old Trafford since drawing 0-0 in both the 1995-96 and 1996-97 campaigns.
Aston Villa won their first league game of 2020 (2-1 vs Burnley), last winning their opening league game in consecutive calendar years in 2008 and 2009.
Manchester United have won more games on New Year’s Day than any other side in the history of the English Football League (35), while of teams to have played at least 10 games on 1st January the Red Devils also have the highest win rate (61% - 35/57).
Aston Villa haven’t lost a league game on New Year’s Day since 2001 (0-1 vs Chelsea), with the Villans unbeaten in 10 such games since (W6 D4).
Aston Villa have won 26 points from 14 Premier League games this season, 11 more than they had after as many games last season (15) - this increase of 11 points across seasons is their biggest improvement at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1998-99 (14 more than they had in 1997-98).
Anwar El Ghazi has scored in each of his last three Premier League appearances for Aston Villa, the last player to score in four successive top-flight games for the club was Christian Benteke in April 2013.
Head-To-Head
Aston Villa and Manchester United have met on 188 occasions, and the match-up hasn’t been too kind for the Villans.
United have taken the points in 99 matches compared to Villa’s 49, with 40 draws having been played out between the teams.
Villa are without a win in their last 16 games against the Red Devils in all competitions, dating back to a 1-0 success at Old Trafford in December 2009.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa slipped four points adrift of Premier League safety after losing 3-0 to Manchester United back in July.
After Trezeguet struck the post, a contentious penalty saw Bruno Fernandes put the visitors into the lead.
Mason Greenwood added a second on the stroke of half-time before Paul Pogba finished off the scoring in the second half.
Team News
Tyrone Mings is available to return after serving a one-game suspension following his two yellow cards against Crystal Palace on Boxing Day.
Ross Barkley is close to a return and could feature after sitting out the last match against his parent club Chelsea, while Trezeguet is still recovering from a hamstring injury.
For United, Victor Lindelof missed their last game with a lower back injury, while Marcos Rojo and Phil Jones remain sidelined.
The Boss
“These are the games that the players want to play in. They look forward to these ones. Manchester United is probably one of the first fixtures all of the players look for. We had a good result there last season and we feel we’re in a better place now, but we know the talent that Manchester United have got.”
Dean Smith
