After Chelsea drew 3-3 with Everton earlier on in the day, Man United had a fantastic chance to go level on points with Chelsea. Unfortunately Man United were not able to take up that opportunity, instead we lost 1-0 to Aston Villa. This was the first time in 26-years that Aston Villa had beaten us in the league at Old Trafford.
Man United starting XI- Tomasz Kuszczak, Darren Fletcher, Wes Brown, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Anderson, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia, Ryan Giggs (captain), Ji-Sung Park and Wayne Rooney.
Man United bench- Ben Foster, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Danny Welbeck, Gabriel Obertan, Darron Gibson and Ritchie De Laet.
Man United had their chances throughout the game. - Rooney’s shot hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced the wrong side of the line. Vidic had a header from a corner cleared off the line and Villa keeper Brad Friedel made a stunning save from a Berbatov strike.
Villa started the game with a few corners, showing their intention to come to Old Trafford and try to leave with a point, or three.
Man United had a lot of the possession but Villa looked very dangerous on the break and during one of those- they scored. Gabriel Agbonlahor got the ball to Ashley Young, who ran at United’s defence. Young crossed the ball into the penalty area and Agbonlahor was there to head the ball into the back of the net.
That then brought on a surge of Man United attacks, Valencia was unable to get a powerful shot at the goal, if he did we might have equalised. Carrick had a shot from 20-yards out, which brought a save out of Friedel. Rooney went down in the penalty area and was booked for diving and it was a dive by Rooney.
United attacked again and this time Evra’s ball into the area only needed a touch by Rooney or Valencia and the ball would have been in the back of the net. Then we had the Rooney effort, which hit the underside of the bar, his first touch was sublime that was followed by a shot, which hit the bar and bounced away to safety.
Giggs had an effort blocked; the follow up hit the side netting. It was looking like it was only going to be a matter of time before United scored.
Immediately into the second half, Owen was brought on for Giggs. Ji Sung Park was also brought off slightly later on, Berbatov replaced him.
Minutes later a ball into the area by Evra was deflected behind for a corner, from the resulting corner Vidic had a header cleared off the line by Stewart Downing. Fridel made a super safe from a Berbatov shot to keep them 1-0 up.
90 minutes in and only three minutes of stoppage time was added. Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t happy, there had been loads of substitutions, a few injuries and the play had been stopped quite a few times. The game finished 1-0 to Aston Villa and we are now three points behind Chelsea in the title race.
