Date: Tuesday, December 26 2023
Kickoff Time: 2000 Hrs GMT
Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester
League Form Guide
3. Manchester United: LWLDL
8. Aston Villa: DWWWD
Previous League Meetings
Manchester United 1—0 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 3—1 Manchester United
Aston Villa 2—2 Manchester United
Manchester United 0—1 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 1—3 Manchester United
All-Time League Record
Manchester United wins: 89
Aston Villa wins: 45
Draws: 40
Pre-Match Pressers
Erik ten Hag
Unai Emery
Team News
Manchester United
Tyrell Malacia, Harry Maguire, Casemiro, Lisandro Martínez, Mason Mount, Amad Diallo, Victor Lindelöf and Jadon Sancho ruled out. Anthony Martial and Raphaël Varane doubtful.
Aston Villa
Emiliano Buendía, Tyrone Mings, Bertrand Traoré, Robin Olsen, Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara ruled out. Pau Torres doubtful.
Know The Opposition
Aston Villa Football Club (nicknamed Villa, The Villa, The Villans, and The Lions) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham. The club were formed in March 1874, by four members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel. The four founders were Jack Hughes, Frederick Matthews, Walter Price and William Scattergood. The first match was against the local Aston Brook St Mary's Rugby team. The club were soon playing the modern version of football though and won its first FA Cup in 1887. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 with one of the club's directors, William McGregor being the league's founder.
The infant club's fortunes changed forever when a young Scotsman called George Ramsay stumbled across the Villa players' practice match in Aston Park in 1876. Word spread about how fine a player Ramsay was; he also took charge of training, later describing the newly formed club's approach to the game as 'a dash at the man and a big kick at the ball'. Ramsay was influenced by the Scottish club, Queen's Park, who pioneered what became known as 'combination football' in his native Glasgow, the intricate passing game he introduced was a revolutionary move for an English club in the late 1870s. His subsequent trophy haul of six League Championships and six FA Cups established Aston Villa as the most successful club in England. He has been described as the world's first paid football manager. To this day, Ramsay remains one of the greatest managers in the history of English football, having won the most league titles of any manager in England until he was surpassed by Sir Alex Ferguson in 1999–00 and the most FA Cup trophies until surpassed by Arsène Wenger in 2016–17
Villa are one of only five English clubs to have won the European Cup, in 1981–82. They have also won the Football League First Division seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Aston Villa had also spent 105 seasons in the top tier of English football. The only club to have spent longer in the top flight are Everton, with 116 seasons, making Aston Villa versus Everton the most-played fixture in English top-flight football. Aston Villa's arch-rivals are Birmingham City, with games between the two clubs known as the Second City Derby. Historically though, West Bromwich Albion have arguably been Villa's greatest rivals. Villa also enjoy less heated local rivalries with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City. Aston Villa have been playing their home games at Villa Park since 1897.
Referee
Craig Pawson.
Familiar Faces
N/A.
