Aston Villa got their pre-season off to the perfect start on Thursday morning thanks to a comfortable 3-0 win against Minnesota United at the Allianz Field.

Dean Smith’s men were the better team throughout the 90 minutes and Jack Grealish opened the scoring for them with 36 minutes on the clock. The whole first XI was changed at half-time and two well-taken late goals from Henri Lansbury and Birkir Bjarnason added a bit of gloss to the scoreline.

This was a good result for Villa, as Minnesota United, or the Loons as they are known as, are currently fighting for a post-season playoff spot so they would have been more match fit.

Next up, Villa travel to the Montgomery Waters Meadow Stadium on Sunday to take on Shrewsbury.

We are now going to try to predict the starting XI, but as it is a pre-season match, don’t be surprised if we get it completely wrong.