FA Premier League

Manchester United 2:1 Aston Villa

Old Trafford

Kick-off
Fri, 1 January 2021 @ 8:00pm GMT
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    JJ12 said:
    Exactly - I think we match up pretty well.

    Im not his biggest fan but AWB’s one on one defending will be huge in slowing down Grealish too.
    Click to expand...
    Grealish plays at LCM now, not LW. But yeah, point taken because El Ghazi is in very good form now, so AWB will have to be at his best against him.
     
    One Night Only said:
    I think fatigue is gonna play a massive part in this for us, looking very leggy. Quite nervous tbh.

    7-0 to us.
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    Surely we have a good enough squad to combat that?

    Fred and McT are fresh as a daisy, Martial has been rested recently, Mason and Mata haven’t played much either, Van de Beek?
     
    Absolutely dying for this now. It'll be tough but I fancy us to put on a good display and win it 2 nil.
     
    We'll play our strongest available team today, as we then have 5 days rest before we face City, and we can rotate against Watford 3 days after.

    De Gea, AWB, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Greenwood, Bruno, Rashford, Martial - today
    De Gea, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Fred, Pogba, Bruno, Martial, Rashford - City
    Henderson, Tuanzebe, Maguire, Bailly, Telles, McTominay, Fred, Mata, Bruno, James, Greenwood - Watford

    Only Maguire and Bruno will start all 3 games I'd imagine.
     
    ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
    So it took over a month for the FA to ban Cavani, conveniently waiting until he’s fit again.

    United should demand to see the process of how this took so bloody long.
    Click to expand...
    Sandikan said:
    It's not worked out too badly as he's done well for us in the meantime, and the games he misses probably suit us with who else is available too.

    The FA would no doubt say they had to "investigate" as it's a "complex" case.
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    FA spent 3 weeks investigating before deciding to charge him, this was announced Dec 17th with news that he had until January 4th to offer a response/defense.

    While I disagree with the decision, I guess the FA felt they couldn't waver from the hardline against possible racist rhetoric in fear of future dubious situations attempting being excused away if they let it slide.

    However it almost felt like the FA tried to do us a bit of a favor by almost allowing us to decide exactly when he would sit out games.

    We/Cavani decided to reply on Monday 28th (with an explanation, but a decision to not challenge the charge), a week before the deadline, right after he helped us to the point against Leicester, and likely too close to the match against Wolves the next day.

    That way the ban would go into effect for this Villa game and 2 cupgames, with Cavani back for Anfield. We had a full 2.5 week to reply, had Cavani had a niggle or otherwise out of shape we could have replied earlier to have him sit out the Christmas games. If there had to be a ban, this is the perfect timing for us.

    I wouldn't even be surprised if there was some off the record conversations between the FA and the club that the FA felt strongly that a reaction had to happen to minimize future risk to actual racist investigations, but tried to accomodate us to figure out how it would minimize impact for us. The announcement day of the charge and response period allowed seems perfectly timed for us if it had to happen.

    The FA even stated that they have no reason to believe that Cavani is racist, nor that he INTENDED to do anything racist, just that for some it may be interpreted as racism and thus it had to receive a reaction.

    So the FA gets its charge to appear to take racism seriously (especially with the recent PSG-Istanbul incident fresh in peoples minds), Cavani saves face for actually being a good guy.
    All in all it's actually kinda good PR all around for all 3 parties, or at least it removes any potential future bad PR.
    I bet we even paid the fine for him.
     
    Quietly confident here. This is where I think the strength of our squad depth will really tell, Martial with a brace and a Bruno peno for 3-0

    Thiagoal said:
    Surely we have a good enough squad to combat that?

    Fred and McT are fresh as a daisy, Martial has been rested recently, Mason and Mata haven’t played much either, Van de Beek?
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    He's talking about them, not us FYI
     
    All hearsay, but apparently Mata will start rather than Greenwood, after Cavani's suspension was brought in.

    de Gea
    Wan-Bissaka Bailly Maguire Shaw
    McTominay Fred
    Mata Bruno Rashford
    Martial
    ---
    Henderson; Tuanzebe, Telles; Matic, Pogba, van de Beek; James, Greenwood, Ighalo/Lingard​
     
    Havak said:
    All hearsay, but apparently Mata will start rather than Greenwood, after Cavani's suspension was brought in.

    de Gea
    Wan-Bissaka Bailly Maguire Shaw
    McTominay Fred
    Mata Bruno Rashford
    Martial
    ---
    Henderson; Tuanzebe, Telles; Matic, Pogba, van de Beek; James, Greenwood, Ighalo/Lingard​
    Click to expand...
    Would make sense. Need an option off the bench if we’re flat
     
    Matriac said:
    FA spent 3 weeks investigating before deciding to charge him, this was announced Dec 17th with news that he had until January 4th to offer a response/defense.

    While I disagree with the decision, I guess the FA felt they couldn't waver from the hardline against possible racist rhetoric in fear of future dubious situations attempting being excused away if they let it slide.

    However it almost felt like the FA tried to do us a bit of a favor by almost allowing us to decide exactly when he would sit out games.

    We/Cavani decided to reply on Monday 28th (with an explanation, but a decision to not challenge the charge), a week before the deadline, right after he helped us to the point against Leicester, and likely too close to the match against Wolves the next day.

    That way the ban would go into effect for this Villa game and 2 cupgames, with Cavani back for Anfield. We had a full 2.5 week to reply, had Cavani had a niggle or otherwise out of shape we could have replied earlier to have him sit out the Christmas games. If there had to be a ban, this is the perfect timing for us.

    I wouldn't even be surprised if there was some off the record conversations between the FA and the club that the FA felt strongly that a reaction had to happen to minimize future risk to actual racist investigations, but tried to accomodate us to figure out how it would minimize impact for us. The announcement day of the charge and response period allowed seems perfectly timed for us if it had to happen.

    The FA even stated that they have no reason to believe that Cavani is racist, nor that he INTENDED to do anything racist, just that for some it may be interpreted as racism and thus it had to receive a reaction.

    So the FA gets its charge to appear to take racism seriously (especially with the recent PSG-Istanbul incident fresh in peoples minds), Cavani saves face for actually being a good guy.
    All in all it's actually kinda good PR all around for all 3 parties, or at least it removes any potential future bad PR.
    I bet we even paid the fine for him.
    Click to expand...

    The only trouble for the FA is that they have now set a minimum for any kind of abuse. Knowing the intellectual level of most footballers and their liking for Twitter, it will be amazing if many last until the end of the season.
     
    Kazi said:
    Would make sense. Need an option off the bench if we’re flat
    Click to expand...

    I agree that we need an option off the bench but surely that shouldn't have to mean starting with Mata, especially against a good counter-attacking side like Villa.

    Not a fan favourite but I'd much prefer us to start with James or even Rashford on the right, with Pogba on the left.
     
    De Gea
    AWB Bailly Maguire Telles
    Pogba Fred
    Mata Fernandes Rashford
    Martial

    Henderson
    Tuanzebe
    Shaw
    Matic
    VdB
    Greenwood
    Ighalo
     
    JakeC said:
    We'll play our strongest available team today, as we then have 5 days rest before we face City, and we can rotate against Watford 3 days after.

    De Gea, AWB, Bailly, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Greenwood, Bruno, Rashford, Martial - today
    De Gea, AWB, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw, Matic, Fred, Pogba, Bruno, Martial, Rashford - City
    Henderson, Tuanzebe, Maguire, Bailly, Telles, McTominay, Fred, Mata, Bruno, James, Greenwood - Watford

    Only Maguire and Bruno will start all 3 games I'd imagine.
    Click to expand...

    That's the team I'd go for, rotation be damned.
     
    RashyForPM said:
    We need to finish properly if we are to win this game. Martinez can make a good claim to have been the best keeper in the world this season so far, maybe bar Oblak.
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    Need to be clinical tonight, United have a bad habit of making goalkeepers the best players on the opposition teams.
     
    ................DDG............
    AWB...Bailly..Maguire..Shaw
    .............Mctominay..........
    ..........Fred.....Pogba.....
    .............Fernandes.......
    ......martial......Rashford
     
    I'd go with McFred as well. As for wide right, keep Greenwood on the bench to bring him on if we're out of ideas. I'd really like to see Donny get the start -- his craft and energy would seem a good matchup against this Villa side -- but I can definitely see Ole going with Mata.
     
    I'm thinking five at the back for this.

    ................ DDG
    ... Bailly Maguire Shaw
    AWB... McT... Fred...Telles
    .................Bruno
    .....Rashford...Martial

    Either that or a diamond with McT, Fred, Pogba, Bruno all starting.
     
    I hope he doesn’t start Mata that would be a poor decision and he would be a passenger in this sort of game. I would prefer if he either starts Greenwood or plays Pogba higher up either in a diamond or from the flank.
     
    Buster15 said:
    No idea. I only watch English football. So I bow to you global knowledge.
    Click to expand...
    Well tbf my knowledge aside from the PL only extends to La Liga and a bit of Bundesliga, but those are the big leagues aren’t they? Bar Oblak, he has been the best. He has been sensational this season.
    Random Task said:
    Oblak may have something to say about it.
    Click to expand...
    Yeah I said so in my previous post. Aside from him though, there’s no one.
    always_hoping said:
    Need to be clinical tonight, United have a bad habit of making goalkeepers the best players on the opposition teams.
    Click to expand...
    Looking at Martial here, and Marcus can’t afford to miss two 1v1s like against Leicester either.
     
    Pexbo said:
    This is very silly. Stop being silly.
    Click to expand...

    It's actually not silly. There is no strong official stance on when the "new decade" begins.

    A decade is simply 10 years. Deca. 110

    From a astronomical point of view they count the decade as 1-10 since year 0 doesn't exist. Calendars count 1-10.

    Culturally it's easier to count 0-9, since you refer to the "60s" "70s" etc.

    The short answer is that there's no hardline answer to when the decade begun. Team "1" and Team "0" both have good arguments.
     
    Tom Cato said:
    It's actually not silly. There is no strong official stance on when the "new decade" begins.

    A decade is simply 10 years. Deca. 110

    From a astronomical point of view they count the decade as 1-10 since year 0 doesn't exist. Calendars count 1-10.

    Culturally it's easier to count 0-9, since you refer to the "60s" "70s" etc.

    The short answer is that there's no hardline answer to when the decade begun. Team "1" and Team "0" both have good arguments.
    Click to expand...

    xx20 is the start of the 20’s
    xx30 is the start of the 30’s

    As referenced by everyone celebrating the millennium on x000 and not x001.
     
    Tom Cato said:
    It's actually not silly. There is no strong official stance on when the "new decade" begins.

    A decade is simply 10 years. Deca. 110

    From a astronomical point of view they count the decade as 1-10 since year 0 doesn't exist. Calendars count 1-10.

    Culturally it's easier to count 0-9, since you refer to the "60s" "70s" etc.

    The short answer is that there's no hardline answer to when the decade begun. Team "1" and Team "0" both have good arguments.
    Click to expand...

    We count in Base10, thus numbers go from 0-9, same as with binary, base2, numbers go from 0-1. So no, there are not good arguments on both side.
     
    Pexbo said:
    xx20 is the start of the 20’s
    xx30 is the start of the 30’s

    As referenced by everyone celebrating the millennium on x000 and not x001.
    Click to expand...

    Yes that is the year 0 argument.

    My point is that there's no right answer to this argument, just circular discussions and preferences.
     
    I would take a dirty win like against Wolves.

    Win this and we can believe.
     
    Who are Villas dangers on set pieces? Ings I guess.... just feel we are so exposed on corners with DDG in goal. With Grealish quality I would prefer Henderson between the sticks.
     
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Post-match discussion

Man of the Match

Eric Bailly image Eric Bailly 52% of 428 votes

Runners-up

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Player Ratings

6.8 Total Average Rating

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Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 395 ratings.
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Score Predictions

196,12,26
  • Man Utd win
  • Aston Villa win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 24% Man Utd 2:1 Aston Villa
  • 19% Man Utd 3:1 Aston Villa
  • 17% Man Utd 2:0 Aston Villa
  • 7% Man Utd 1:0 Aston Villa
  • 6% Man Utd 1:1 Aston Villa
  • 5% Man Utd 3:0 Aston Villa
  • 5% Man Utd 2:2 Aston Villa
  • 4% Man Utd 3:2 Aston Villa
  • 3% Man Utd 4:1 Aston Villa
  • 3% Man Utd 5:0 Aston Villa
  • 2% Man Utd 0:2 Aston Villa
  • 2% Man Utd 1:2 Aston Villa
  • 1% Man Utd 4:0 Aston Villa
  • 1% Man Utd 4:2 Aston Villa
  • 1% Man Utd 0:0 Aston Villa
  • 0% Man Utd 1:4 Aston Villa
  • 0% Man Utd 0:5 Aston Villa
  • 0% Man Utd 2:3 Aston Villa
  • 0% Man Utd 1:3 Aston Villa
Compiled from 234 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. Man Utd
  2. Aston Villa
Possession
49% 51%
Shots
19 15
Shots on Target
9 5
Corners
5 10
Fouls
22 10

Referee

Michael Oliver

Man Utd Lineup

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