Premier League: Christmas Claret Might Taste Bitter to the Red Devils

Aston Villa vs Manchester United

There are plenty of eye-catching matches on the last weekend of top-flight football before Christmas, and the Sunday special, Premier League: Aston Villa vs Manchester United is certainly up among them.

Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are on fire, with nine consecutive victories across all competitions and they are riding high in the Premier League table, in third place and just three points behind leaders Arsenal. Villa’s cushion over Chelsea in fourth is a healthy five points and, with the Blues visiting Newcastle United on Saturday that gap could well increase by the end of the weekend. 

A recent upturn from Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United has seen them climb up to sixth in the table and just two points behind Chelsea so a win at Villa Park could see them gatecrash the Champions League places. The Red Devils are the Villans’ bogey team but the Aston Villa vs Manchester United betting odds say the hosts are about to buck that trend.

This is certainly an intriguing battle to get our teeth into, so let’s take a look at the two teams, the stats and the odds… and make our call.   

 

Talking Points 

Shoot on sight is working for Villa 

Emery’s men were caught on the hop when they faced West Ham United last week, going behind on just 29 minutes to the fastest goal of the season. But Villa showed great composure to overcome the strugglers and a second-half double from Morgan Rogers eventually gave them a 3-2 victory. That made it five goals for the campaign for the England man and 16 in 64 games for Villa, since his arrival in 2024. His opener was a smart first-time finish but his second was a 25-yard stunner which flew into the net to win the game on 79 minutes. 

The Hammers had more shots than Villa at ten to seven, and more ‘expected goals’ but that isn’t unusual for the Midlanders who have scored a whopping ten goals from outside the penalty area this season. Their clinical finishing and willingness to take a pot shot has been a big reason for Villa’s meteoric rise, after a slow start to the season. 

Villa are the team in form and have hauled themselves into the title race, with ten wins from 11, and next up they face a team which will certainly give them room to shoot!           

 

Christmas chaos for Red Devils fans 

It’s not been a great time to be a Manchester United fan since the retirement of the great Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of the 2012/13 campaign. A procession of managers has passed through Old Trafford and now Ruben Amorim is trying his hand. The Portuguese boss has struggled, as much as his predecessors but, with eight points from four games he is in a purple patch and nobody can say it hasn’t been entertaining.     

United’s visit to Bournemouth turned out to be one of the matches of the campaign as the two teams went out on all-out attack and ended up sharing the spoils in a 4-4 draw. At 3-2 down talisman Bruno Fernandes and striker Matheus Cunha made it 4-3 but Amorim’s men still managed to concede a late leveller. It was great fun to watch for the neutral, but United fans must be pulling their hair out after seeing their team going nine games without a clean sheet, last doing so in a 2-0 win over Sunderland at the start of October. But it was possibly Manchester United’s best performance of the season so far. 

It’s hard to work out what’s coming next for Amorim’s men.    

 

History

The Red Devils have totally bossed this relationship over the past 62 games with 43 wins, 15 draws and only four defeats. At Villa Park the Mancunians have lost just once, winning 18 and drawing ten. Last season the meeting in Birmingham ended in a goalless draw but I really can’t see a repeat of that on Sunday.    

While the historic Aston Villa vs Manchester United results have favoured the Red Devils, in terms of recent form, Villa have won each of their last six games in all competitions while Manchester United have won two, drawn three and lost one.   

 

Betting Tip

Despite a sparkling record at Villa Park, Manchester United are outsiders this time around at a SBOTOP price of 3.40 with the draw at 3.55. 

There are some signs that Amorim may be getting things right at Old Trafford, but it’s not a speedy process and the Villans are already motoring and, for a correct score line, I think 2-1 to the hosts at a price of 7.95 will be near the mark.

   

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