Wednesday, 10th February 2010 – KO: 19:45

Generally speaking, we have a very good record at Villa Park but having said that, Villa hadn’t beaten us at Old Trafford for 26 years until they beat us 1-0 in December!

However, that defeat against Villa did come during our dodgy spell when Fergie barely had a defender to pick. It was the defeat against Fulham a couple of games later that really seems to have given us a jolt and our form since then has been very impressive and we are currently playing as well as we have played for quite some time.

I must admit that Fergie’s team selection in our last game (the 5-0 drubbing of hapless Portsmouth) was a bit surprising. I expected him to rest one or two but he selected his strongest possible team and I can only imagine that something similar will be the case tonight.

Villa still have plenty to play for this season but there have been signs of late that they are just wobbling a little bit and are not looking quite as strong as they were a couple of months ago.

I’m not going to go too deeply into this one. It is a tough game for us but it is the kind of game that we need to win because it is exactly the kind of game that Chelsea might be hoping to see us slip up in. A decent win for us here tonight will just let Chelsea know that we are not going away and that will only increase the pressure on Chelsea.

I think the price about a United win here is attractive enough to take here.

The bet is 3 points Manchester United to Win @ 1.9 with Paddy Power.

Fergie reverted to the familiar 4-5-1 formation for this one with Rooney on his own up front, Nani on the right and Giggs on the left. The rest of the team remained unchanged (no Vidic in defence again).

There wasn’t much to choose between the two teams in the early exchanges but Villa took the lead thanks to a remarkable header from Cuellar. There can’t be many times in his career that Edwin Van Der Sar has watched a header power over him from around 12 yards out but there you go.

Their lead was short-lived however as United equalised less than five minutes later. Good work from Nani again and a very good cross saw Giggs take a swing at it. I am not totally certain that it was a shot (it was heading for Scholes who would have had a tap in) but Villa defender James Collins attempted to shift his legs to avoid the nutmeg but this only deflected the ball into the net.

The next big incident was the sending off of Nani. The ball was loose and Nani went in full-bloodied and caught Petrov in the follow-through.

At first, the tackle looked bad but having watched it again from several different angles, it is nowhere near as bad as several challenges I have seen recently that have gone unpunished.

Nani definately got the ball and the tackle wasn’t as two footed as it first appeared. There is even a great angle which clearly shows Darren Fletcher watching the tackle and he punches the air as Nani wins the ball as if to say, “Well done lad, get in there!”

He clearly felt that the tackle was strong but non-malicious and the ball was won fairly. I have to say that that is my view of it now.

I think Petrov’s theatricals helped make the ref’s decision much easier. Had he just got up to his feet, I think the ref probably would have given Nani a yellow card.

So, with an hour to play, United were down to ten men.

You might have expected Villa to try to press home this advantage but strangely, they were very unadventurous and it was probably United who still had the better possession and chances.

Of course, a certain Brad Friedel denied us on a few occasions with his usual world class performance that he seems to reserve especially for Manchester United.

Had we played this game with eleven men then I think we would have gone on to win it but without the threat that Nani has been bringing to the game in recent weeks, Rooney looked a bit isolated up there on his own and against the meanest defence in the Premier League, he wasn’t going to get much change.

Two points dropped would have been much more hard to swallow had it not been for Everton beating Chelsea so we actually gained a point on them on the night.