Following last weekend’s debacle against Tottenham Hotspur and their comedy of errors on Porto on Thursday night, Manchester United travel to the West Midlands for another testing match, this time away to in-form Aston Villa.
Manager Erik Ten Hag was clinging on to his job by his fingernails following United’s 3-0 home reversal last Sunday and their scrambled draw in Portugal. Those nails are looking increasingly shredded.
There are few more challenging places that he could be visiting this weekend than Villa Park. Aston Villa have only been beaten once in six Premier League games so far this season, and that was at home against Arsenal in August.
They’ve also kick-started their return to the Champions League after an absence of 42 years with two wins, 3-0 in Bern against Young Boys, and 1-0 against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night, a match won by a late goal scored by this season’s wunderkind Jhón Duran, who’s also scored four goals in their six Premier League matches so far.
If there is a glimmer of light for United fans to focus upon, it’s probably Villa’s defensive record. Their two Champions League clean sheets are the only ones they’ve kept all season.
They’ve conceded in each of their League matches so far, as well as in a 2-1 win at Wycombe Wanderers in the EFL Cup.
Last weekend at Ipswich, a second half Liam Delap goal cost them two points which would have put them second in the table and level on points with leaders Liverpool.
Instead, they go into this weekend in fifth.
The head-to-head form book favours United. Since Villa’s return to the Premier League in 2019, they’ve only beaten them twice, and United have won each of the last four meetings between the two clubs.
But Villa will surely arrive for this game riding the crest of a wave following their Bayern win, so how on earth does the United manager turn around a team whose performances last week were as bad as anything they’ve managed previously under him?
But Aston Villa will arrive at this match fresh off the back of their best European result in more than 40 years, while Manchester United will arrive their usual bag of melodramatic nerves.
The Manchester United manager may need a win to keep his job, but needing one isn’t enough on its own, and Thursday night offered little consolation to fans.