Prediction & odds for the game: Manchester United (8/11) v Aston Villa (16/5) – ST is backing the home win

When: Friday, 1st January @ 8pm K.O

Where: Old Trafford

Manchester United and Aston Villa will meet in what will serve as a clash between two of the Premier League’s early high flyers.

Manchester United

For whatever reason, Manchester United have burst into life over the course of the last few months and they aren’t going to be slowing down anytime soon. From Fergie Time winners to well-rounded performances, they just can’t stop picking up points in every conceivable direction. They have a talented squad, they’re thriving in front of goal and the team is beginning to believe that it’s not over until it’s over.

Without realising it, the 0-0 draw against Manchester City actually set the Red Devils off on quite the run of form. They just about edged past Sheffield United before absolutely battering Leeds, and then in the Carabao Cup, they managed to reach the semi-finals with a 2-0 win over Everton. They fought hard to draw 2-2 with Leicester before a last minute Rashford winner handed them the victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers last night.

Aston Villa

From relegation candidates to European contenders – Aston Villa are threatening to qualify for Europe again and they’re doing so in style. They may not be the complete package just yet but with Dean Smith at the helm, they have a confidence embedded within their squad that is really nice to see. The kings of the second city still have a long way to go before they can be viewed as serious top six challengers, and their journey towards reaching that goal should be pretty intriguing.

Villa fell short in the claret and blue derby back at the end of November with a poor loss to West Ham, but outside of a 0-0 draw against Burnley, the only way has been up for the Midlanders. They beat rivals Wolves and West Brom in the span of eight days, put Crystal Palace to the sword and battled to a 1-1 draw against Chelsea.

Conclusion

This has the potential to be an absolute barnburner of a game between two teams who are on fire right now. We expect Villa to cause United all kinds of problems and based on their recent track record, we’d be very surprised if they didn’t get on the scoresheet. Manchester United are well and truly riding the biggest wave of momentum they’ve had since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer first took over, and because of that, we’re backing them to edge out all three points at Old Trafford.

Our official scoreline prediction is going to be 2-1 United, meaning we hit the over 2.5 goals marker.

Verdict: Back the home win at odds of 8/11 and the over 2.5 goals scored at odds of 8/15 (All odds are taken from bet365).

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If you want to bet on Manchester United vs Aston Villa then head on over to the betting page. Alternatively, you can check out some of the other available fixtures at the soccer predictions page as we approach the always decisive month of January.