Aston Villa v Manchester United 21.12.25 - Pre Match Thread

[Halfway to Moseley]

Hope we treat them like any other mid table side that visits Villa Park. They are nothing special and haven’t been for several years.

Refs/VAR haven’t got the memo though, and still officiate their games as if Sir Alex is breathing down their necks. Suspect we’ll have to deal with at least one dodgy major decision going against us, as per usual with this lot.

[Lsvilla]

Michael Oliver in charge.

[Brazilian Villain]

Michael Oliver in charge.

Oh Gawd!

[Somniloquism]

*Everyone suddenly adds two to the opposition score in the predictions*

[Hillbilly]

We haven’t yet had the Rogers/Kamara/Tielemans/Konsa/Martinez to Man Utd stories planted in the media. They really are losing their touch.

[Somniloquism]

Wait until Friday and Saturday. If they do it too early it is wasted.

[eye digress]

We are better. But they are, annoyingly, improving from the shambles of last year.

They are also our closest rival, I think, for a CL spot (assuming that Liverpool and Chelsea overhaul us over the course of the season - not a given, but reasonably likely).

So a lot riding on this. We need to go into this game with the ironclad conviction that we will win. I’m thinking Newcastle at home in spring of 2025 and 2023, Brighton at home in 2023.

UTV!

[Pat Mustard]

They really aren't improving, and are going to be significantly weaker this weekend.  The reaction in the media to their game last night is astonishing - they scraped a 4-4 draw at home to a side who haven't won in nearly two months (and who we recently smashed 4-0 by the way) and the BBC are talking like it's Ferguson's side in their pomp.  They are only helped by the congestion in mid-table this year, but on their current form they will pretty soon revert to lower mid-table once they meet a few better sides.

I know it's in our nature to be pessimistic, but this is absolutely the time for us to start backing ourselves.  If both sides play to their full capacity we beat them 9 times out of 10 with current line-ups.  We have to go into this one expecting to absolutely funeral them, and I think we will.

[Ian.]

I’d be worried about Matheus Cunha, that’s if he fancies being up for it. He’s a quality player when he wants to be, but he’s also easily frustrated and could lose it. He was excellent last night.

Mbeumo‘s an odd one. In the space of 20 minutes he’s a world beater and also Nigel Callaghan. For many times last season I would love to of seen us sign him, but not sure now. He’s off now though, so I guess one less to worry about.

Casemiro is a big loss for them, he fits into their system well and poses a threat from midfield. I’m glad he’s out.

The key will be to go out and not worry about their game and try and put that shakey defence under lots of pressure.

[London Villan]

Be interesting to see how we approach it. Go for them, like we did against bournemouth, or sit back and try to dictate the pace and slow the game down.

[SaddVillan]

I’d be worried about Matheus Cunha, that’s if he fancies being up for it. He’s a quality player when he wants to be, but he’s also easily frustrated and could lose it. He was excellent last night.

Mbeumo‘s an odd one. In the space of 20 minutes he’s a world beater and also Nigel Callaghan. For many times last season I would love to of seen us sign him, but not sure now. He’s off now though, so I guess one less to worry about.

Casemiro is a big loss for them, he fits into their system well and poses a threat from midfield. I’m glad he’s out.

The key will be to go out and not worry about their game and try and put that shakey defence under lots of pressure.

Isn't Mbuemo (Cameroon) off to AFCON, along with Amad (Ivory Coast) and Mazroui (Morocco)?

[Dave]

Yup - as he says, gone now so one less to worry about.

[usav]

Michael Oliver in charge.

Oh Gawd!

Oh good, he's the best.....which I get isn't the ringing endorsement it should be.

[Smithy]

They really aren't improving, and are going to be significantly weaker this weekend.  The reaction in the media to their game last night is astonishing - they scraped a 4-4 draw at home to a side who haven't won in nearly two months (and who we recently smashed 4-0 by the way) and the BBC are talking like it's Ferguson's side in their pomp.  They are only helped by the congestion in mid-table this year, but on their current form they will pretty soon revert to lower mid-table once they meet a few better sides.

I know it's in our nature to be pessimistic, but this is absolutely the time for us to start backing ourselves.  If both sides play to their full capacity we beat them 9 times out of 10 with current line-ups.  We have to go into this one expecting to absolutely funeral them, and I think we will.

I mean, they ARE improving, but only because they were so utterly terrible last year.  They finished 15th last season, and are currently sat 6th.  Any other team had that turnaround from one season to the next and we'd be saying "blimey, they're a VERY different proposition to last year".

That's NOT to say they're particularly good.  But they're where they are in the league for a reason.

We definitely owe them a good shoeing, and I hope to God it's this weekend, not least to keep the gap to 6th place nice and big, but also because the next two will be particularly difficult games and I'd prefer to go into them with our run intact.  If our run ends against Chelsea or Arsenal, there's no real shame in that, but losing it to these buggers would be galling in the extreme.

[paul_e]

That's slightly misleading though because of how condensed the table is this season, they're 4 points better off than they were after 16 games last season, and that was after they decided to sack Ten Haag for underperforming so not massive.

Where things may change is that last season they were truly fucking shit from about this point on, getting 17 points from the 21 games before we went there on the last day. They could easily have been in the relegation battle if the 3 promoted teams hadn't been so poor (same for Spurs who were even worse in that run and got just 15 points from the last 22 games).

They'll undoubtedly end up in a better place than they did last season because there's no way they're going to be that shit again but they're still very much a midtable team, it's just 'midtable' is now every from 4th to 16th.