Aston Villa v Manchester United Betting Tip & Odds: Would fancy United to edge this one. It will be an important three points for United in keeping up their title ambitions, but Villa need a win to turn around a bad patch of form. But United aren’t at their best and yet they keep scraping out 1-0 wins, and when you look at things here, that looks to be a likely result on Saturday between these two. United’s most frequent results away from home this season have been 1-0 wins and 1-1 draws, so that is a big indicator as to where to start looking for your Villa v Man United betting. Therefore we will look at Manchester United -1 Asian Handicap for 6/5 at Bet365.
Aston Villa to win: 4/1 at SkyBet
Draw: 14/5 at Stan James
Manchester United to win: 8/11 at Bet365
EPL Match Preview: Definitely should be an interesting affair at Villa Park on Saturday with United looking to bounce back from a shock Carling Cup exit in midweek. The Red Devils have lost a lot of momentum in terms of showing themselves as an attacking force this season, but they are still plodding along and picking up points. After a disappointing draw against Newcastle last week in the league, United were let off the hook when league leaders Man City could also only manage a draw. As for Aston Villa, they need to pick up some points, because they have hit a pretty rough patch of form where wins are becoming very hard to come by. Villa are an ambitious club which aren’t quite living up to the heights of where they actually want to be, but three home points against the Red Devils would certainly give them a boost of confidence to push on.
Aston Villa Form: After a solid enough start to the new season for boss Alex McLeish, who rattled off a run of seven unbeaten matches with Villa, signs of frailty have crept in. They have lost three of their last six matches now, and are eighth in the league and are unlikely to get any higher this season. They have done alright at home though, with just one defeat at Villa Park. They have won three, drawn two and lost that one at home so far this season. That is a 50% win percentage at home for them. Villa have managed to score at least one goal in each of their last four matches now, with Gabby Agbonlahor and Darren Bent doing pretty well up front for Villa. McLeish’s men are averaging 1.6 goals per match at home this season, but they are conceding on average one goal per match. They could do with tightening up their defence though, as they have kept clean sheets in just two of their six home matches, and their home matches have yielded nearly 70% of all of their points this season. Their best periods in front of goal have come in the middle of each half but 56% of all their goals have come in the second half of matches. They are not too great at getting out in front, which could be the reason why they are struggling to pick up wins, as they have scored first in just 46% of their matches. It generally means that they then have to do a lot of scrapping and chasing for points. Darren Bent and Gabby Agbonlahor both have five league goals for the season, Villa’s real threats up front. There is a bit of a feeling that Villa can get better and McLeish hasn’t gone the boring route which many expected him to after his exploits with Birmingham, and Villa do play some nice open football. Still a work in progress though, but they have decent enough home form to trouble United, who definitely are not at their all powerful best at the moment. They may have ambition, listening to the board, but with just one win in their last six, they are going to need to start putting the points on the board sooner rather than latter. With no goals in their last two matches either, it is hard to see Villa taking three points off United, so a draw at best looks likely for them.
Manchester United Form: Not sure just when Manchester United are going to come out of their shell, or whether they really have the capacity to do so. While they may have rightly felt aggrieved at Newcastle stealing a point at Old Trafford last weekend because of a dubious penalty awarded against Rio Ferdinand, the progress of United has generally been stunted. The defeat against Manchester City really knocked the win out of their impressive early season sails, and three of their last four matches has ended in narrow 1-0 wins in the league. You expect Manchester United to just steam roller teams like Sunderland and Newcastle at home, but they have not been able to. They have looked a very laborious, defensive minded team, scared of suffering a repeat of the Man City humiliation. Wayne Rooney’s goal scoring contributions have totally vanished, not having scored a league goal since their 3-1 home win over Chelsea on September 18th. Since then, remarkably, United have only managed to score more than one goal in a match once since then. Let’s just sum that up, only once in the last eight league matches have United scored more than one goal. That’s something you don’t associate with them, but only Javier Hernandez, who has scored in three of the last four, is carrying any real threat. Their clinical, sweeping forward movements have gone, and United were embarrassed in mid week, when Championship side Crystal Palace beat them at Old Trafford. So a trip to Villa is going to be tricky for Sir Alex Ferguson. Away from home in the league this season, Man Utd have won four, drawn two and have yet to suffer a defeat, so they are in pretty decent shape, if not thoroughly convincing. They are currently on a two match winning streak away from home, and have scored at least one in each of their six away matches this season. So you do expect them to score at least one on Saturday. United are still, as always, at their most dangerous in the final fifteen minutes of matches, and they have scored 53% of their league goals in the second half this season. Worth getting a bet down on them to open the scoring, as they have scored first in 85% of their matches, which is very good. Clearly Wayne Rooney doesn’t know where the goal is at the moment, but he still leads the way with 9 goals for the club, with Hernandez on six behind him. Five of those six for Hernandez have been away from home, so definitely worth a look in your goal scoring betting for the Mexican. Unconvincing in front of goal, not brilliant at the back, but they generally get the job done.
Head to Head: Things are pretty even in the head to head between Villa and United at Villa Park. When the two sides have met in the Midlands, Villa have won 35 of the meetings at Villa Park, while United have scored an impressive 31 wins there, and earned 21 draws. So no real ascendancy for the home club in this fixture, but Villa have proven to be a stubborn side against United in the last few league meetings. Out of the last six league matches between these two, United have won only one, with Villa picking up a win as well in that run of games, leaving four drawn matches out of the last six encounters. Villa have held on for three draws in their last three home league fixtures against United, including last season’s 2-2 draw at Villa Park.
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