Sunday, 28th February 2009 – KO: 15:00

This of course is now the third time we have played Villa this season and it has to be said that so far they have had the upper hand and they will really fancy their chances. Any notion that Fergie might mess about with the team here and play a few youngsters is nonsense as far as I’m concerned.

I think we will have to be at our very best to win this one.

The one thing I am not expecting here is a goal-fest. Our two League games have produced just three goals between them and Villa and United are officially the two meanest defences in the Premier League.

Add to this the fact that there have been very few goals scored in any of our Wembley appearances in recent years and I think it all adds up to another low scoring affair here today.

As to the team Fergie will pick, I can see nothing other than a full strength line-up.

Van Der Sar, Rafael, Brown, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, Park, Berbatov and Rooney.

The big decision is the formation – will he go with Scholes and drop Berby for a 4-5-1 formation?

I think Villa will go with the 4-5-1 formation with Agbonlahor causing havoc alone upfront so we might need bodies in the middle of the park so that we don’t get over-run so it might be that Fergie goes with the 4-5-1 too.

I don’t really have much more to say about this match, I think it is going to be a close one and the first goal could be crucial. Villa have already proved that they have what it takes to beat us but if we’re firing and fully focused thenwe certainly have what it takes to beat them.

I’m going to keep my betting on this one to a minimum and bet only on the belief that this will be a low scoring affair.

The bet is 2 points UNDER 2.5 goals @ 1.92 with Bet365.

Fergie sprang his usual surprise by leaving Rooney on the bench and going with Berbatov and Owen up front for this one. That Van Der Sar was replaced in goal by Kuszcak was less of a surprise. The rest of the team was pretty much as expected although Evans was restored to the centre of defence alongside Vidic.

The omission of Rooney obviously raised a few eyebrows but the partnership of Owen and Berbatov worked well while it lasted.

The game was barely three minutes old when Agbonlahor found himself through with only Vidic for company, he ran quite some distance with the ball with Vidic doing his usual grabbing and mauling and this eventually led to Vidic pulling Agbonlahor’s shirt and dragging him to the ground in the penalty area.

The referee immediately blew for the penalty but did not show Vidic a card. Having now seen this incident several times, I do believe that he was right to do so. Agbonlahor never really shook Vidic off and at the moment that Vidic pulled him down, Agbonlahor had started to go back to his outside and, technically, at that precise point, was going away from goal.

Milner scored the penalty to givehis team a dream start.

The lead didn’t last long however after some great work from Berbatov saw him dispossess the usually excellent Richard Dunne. Dunne was not to be outdone (!?) though and got back to tackle Berbatov in kind. His tackle only saw the ball come infield in the general direction of the ever-ready Michael Owen who did not need a second invitation and swept the ball first time into the far corner.

From this point onwards, Manchester United just seemed to get stronger and stronger whilst Villa’s grip on the game seemed to be slipping.

Just before half-time, Michael Owen found himself through on goal again but just as he might have been about to pull the trigger, he felt his hamstring and that was his game over. Desperately bad luck for Michael Owen but it did see Rooney take to the field as his replacement.

Much of what Rooney did was not great to be quite honest. He was giving the ball away and generally found little success with anything he tried to do.

However, he was not to be denied as he scored with his head (again) in the 74th minute from another great cross from Valencia.

Villa piled on the pressure in the closing stages but could not quite make the breakthrough and so we ran out 2-1 winners and the first trophy of 2010 is now in Manchester United’s cabinet.

Martin O’Neill was not happy at the end of the game because the referee did not send off Vidic and I had to laugh when I saw one or two interviews with the players who felt that the incident was the “turning point” in the game.

Quite how an incident that happens in the third minute can be classed as a turning point is beyond me. Especially when that turning point results in you taking the lead!