Two sides who picked up narrow wins on the opening weekend of the Premier League season meet in the first official Friday night game this week when Aston Villa host Man Utd at Old Trafford.
The incentive is there for both sides as whoever comes out on top here will top the table for a few hours until the rest of the weekend’s fixtures are played. For a side like Aston Villa that will get everyone at the club buzzing and give them a solid platform to build from.
Aston Villa beat Bournemouth last week with their new signing Rudy Gestede coming off the bench to score the only goal. Despite scoring last week he is expected to remain on the bench for this game. Jack Grealish and Carles Gil are back in training but the match is expected to come too soon for either to feature.
Man Utd edged past Tottenham last weekend in a performance which wasn’t the most inspiring but they got the job done. David de Gea missed that match with the ongoing transfer saga surrounding him and Louis van Gaal has confirmed that the Spaniard will miss this match too. Memphis Depay came with a big reputation and he will hope to fulfil that in this one. Bastian Schweinsteiger could start for the first time having come off the bench last week.
Manchester United have a really good record in this fixture. They are unbeaten at Villa Park in their last 19 appearances there which will be a daunting burden around the necks of the Villa players. Villa have won just one of their last 39 matches against Man Utd which has to be one of the worst current records going around.
I’m tempted to back United in this match with that head to head record behind them but I wasn’t overly impressed with them last week and it is still a little early in the season to be loading up on sides at odds on. United could prove to be good accumulator material this weekend but I’ll keep my powder dry here and save it for the rest of the action to come.
