Man United travel to the Midlands today to take on Aston Villa (5.30pm KO, Live on ESPN) and even though they have not had the best of weeks they rate a solid bet at 3/4 to bounce back and bag all three points.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s young guns were frustrated in their 1-1 draw with Newcastle last weekend, as Javier Hernandez’s opener was cancelled out by Demba Ba following a controversial penalty decision that the main man described as “shocking”.
They then slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace on Wednesday to bow out of the Carling Cup at the quarter-final stage, after which Ferguson apologised to supporters for the performance having rested several senior players and relied on inexperienced young blood to deliver the goods.
It will be back to the first-choice starting XI for the trip to Villa, and that should be enough for United to land odds of 3/4 with Ladbrokes and Paddy Power.
The stats are certainly in United’s favour as far as this clash is concerned.
Villa have won none of their last 15 Premiership home games against United, drawing six and losing nine, and overall they have won just one of 31 meetings between the two sides.
United have also won 11 times at Villa Park in the PL, and with Rooney, Hernandez, Nani and Vidic all expected to start it would take a brave man to back against them not notching another win over Alex McLeish’s men who lack passion and play negative football.