At Villa Park, Aston Villa and Manchester United shared the victory in an unimpressive 0-0 draw.
Due to the fact that both teams participated in European competitions midweek, albeit with differing degrees of success, Sunday’s match felt sluggish.
Midway through the second half, Bruno Fernandes came dangerously close to breaking the tie when he struck the crossbar with a 25-yard free kick for United.
Youri Tielemans and Marcus Rashford, who was maybe lucky not to be sent off, also came close, but neither team could find the breakthrough.
With seven Premier League games played, Villa under Unai Emery’s leadership are in fifth place with 14 points, while United is in 14th place with eight points, their lowest-ever total.
How the game played out
On minute eight, Morgan Rogers wasted the first opportunity, shooting wide from inside the box, while Jaden Philogene missed the mark by the narrowest of margins from a distance.
Ezri Konsa hobbled off, forcing the hosts to make an early defensive substitution. Harry Maguire and Noussair Mazraoui replaced him at halftime, and United did the same.
Emiliano Martinez had stopped Rashford at the other end, and Tielemans made a great save against Andre Onana. The Villa supporters were furious when the United attacker was spared a second booking for a careless foul on Leon Bailey.
When Fernandes hit the crossbar with his dipping free kick in the 68th minute, Villa was saved by the woodwork. However, Philogene could have won it in stoppage time if Diogo Dalot had not blocked his goalbound attempt. In the end, both teams’ inability to score when it mattered most proved to be the difference in the match.
Villa unable to capitalize on Bayern’s lead
Villa had a lot to be happy about going into their match against a struggling United in the west midlands.
Emery’s team had just defeated Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday, capping off their best Premier League season start in 16 years.
They just couldn’t sustain that momentum, though.
After Rogers’ early opportunity, it appeared as though they would, but Konsa’s injury appeared to halt them in their tracks and give United a footing in the game.
Not even the arrival of great sub Jhon Duran could ignite the offensive spark they needed.
After seeing his final blocked shot, Philogene would have thought he should have maintained a little more poise because Dalot got in the middle of the winger’s attempt to try for power rather than placement.
Nevertheless, Villa maintained their position in the top four going into the international break and increased their streak of victories to eight games in all competitions.
Ten Hag, will he have more time?
After seven league games, this is United’s lowest point total since the 1989–1990 season. It’s easy to say Erik ten Hag hasn’t had a good week.
With nine points from the first seven games of Ten Hag’s two previous seasons in charge, United has historically lagged behind in the Premier League. But, will the club’s leadership allow him the opportunity to make amends this season?
Ten Hag made changes to his core defense following Thursday’s stalemate with FC Porto, but one of them—Maguire—was pulled off due to injury at halftime, and Mazraoui also had to make way. Victor Lindelof and Matthijs de Ligt then entered the game.
With a strong defense led by seasoned player Jonny Evans, United managed to hold off Villa for their third straight clean sheet away from home.
Apart from the efforts of Fernandes and Rashford, they were unable to muster much of an offensive threat, especially when playing in open play, and they have now lost three straight league games without scoring a goal.
Although that was undoubtedly better than what United produced against Tottenham Hotspur the previous week, it remains to be seen if Ten Hag will continue to have the support of the organization.
What supervisors stated
Unai Emery: “We had opportunities with Morgan [Rogers] and Jaden Philogene in the closing minutes of the game, and we came very close to scoring a goal.” I believe that both teams received a fair draw.
Erik ten Hag: “We have kept a clean sheet four times already this season, which speaks volumes about our excellent organization and control both in and out of the ball. We’ve got a ton of chances in games thus far, but tonight we didn’t have as many, even though we had opportunities, especially with [Marcus] Rashford before and after halftime.
Important details
This was Aston Villa’s 62nd home game without a goal since May 2021 (0-0 against Everton under Dean Smith), their last goalless tie at Villa Park in the Premier League.
In their last four Premier League home games against Manchester United (W1 D2), Villa has only lost once. With five points from these games, Villa has more points than they did from their 16 prior home games against them in the top tier between 2002–03 and 2020–21 (four).
Man Utd has only scored five goals in their first seven Premier League games in 2024–25; their lowest number of goals scored through the first seven games of a top flight campaign was four in 1972–1973.
With three straight Premier League games without a goal, United has tied their worst goalless streak in the tournament under Erik ten Hag (three in December 2023 and April 2023).
ALSO READ:
