In light of Aston Villa clashing horns with Manchester United tonight, we have a glance back into the past when the Villans secured a 1-0 win over United at Old Trafford in December 2009.
In a season where Villa managed to finish 6th, only six points off Champions League football, this victory away at Old Trafford was the pinnacle game of a fantastic campaign for Martin O’Neill and his men in which they also managed victories against fierce rivals Birmingham City home and away and also reached Wembley twice through appearing in the F.A. Cup semi-finals and finishing runners-up in the Carling Cup.
Villa shocked the Red Devils by gaining a 1-0 lead after just after 21 minutes had passed on the clock with Ashley Young placing a ball beautifully on Gabriel Agbonlahor’s head to give Villa the early advantage.
The Villa team, which featured players like James Milner, Stewart Downing and John Carew managed to pull off Villa’s first win against United since 1999 which put them up to third place in the league after a fantastic defensive display, especially from ‘The Human Wall’ Brad Friedel in goal.
Despite a solid performance from the back line of Luke Young, Cuellar, Dunne and Warnock, Villa dominated the game at times and strung together some great attacking moves and opportunities, with Agbonlahor, Ashley Young, Heskey and Downing all in instrumental form.
Although the Villans may not have anything similar to the team that won back in 2009, they are well capable of pulling off a surprise result against Louis Van Gaal’s side who were outplayed by Spurs last weekend. Hopefully history can repeat itself.
