Stretford End: United And You

Preview: Aston Villa vs Manchester United

Manchester United travel to Villa Park in what could be a crunch fixture than what most will expect. The Red Devils hammered Bournemouth 5-2 in their last meeting while Aston Villa lost 2-0 to Liverpool. United have been unbeaten in their last 20 PL games at Villa Park, the longest unbeaten away run by a team in the top flight history.

Ole will be without the usual Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe. Victor Lindelöf is doubtful as he was subbed off at half-time Vs Bournemouth. The club will access his situation before the game. Aston Villa will be relieved to have Jack Grealish and Tyrone Mings back in contention. The duo suffered knocks Vs Liverpool but trained earlier this week with the team. Matt Targett, Tom Heaton and Wesley are set to miss out today's encounter.

My predicted line-up (4-3-3): David De Gea will start in goal despite people questioning him for making another error against The Cherries. He has Solskjaer's backing and has been working hard in training. At left-back Luke Shaw could continue to hold his spot as he keeps improving his game. Eric Bailly should start alongside Harry Maguire if Victor Lindelöf isn't fit. At right-back, the in-from Aaron Wan-Bissaka will complete the backline.

Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes should lead the middle of the park with protection from Nemanja Matic. The Serb recently signed a new contract and could have a big task ahead of him today. I hope United's defenders to play too high up the pitch due to Villa's counter attacking threat.

Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood complete an unchanged line-up. United's forwards have been in blistering form and have been scoring goals left, right and center.

I know that I appear to be too conservative as I've stated that games Vs Brighton and Bournemouth but I've been trying to state facts. Aston Villa looked really good against Liverpool and it was only Liverpool's bench that made the difference as the game progressed. There will bits from the press-conference below where you should see what Ole thinks about Aston Villa.

Whoever our opponent may be, we are confident of getting a result as the players seems to physically and mentally strong. Mason Greenwood continues to impress with two goals in the game Vs Bournemouth while Bruno Fernandes is the gift that keeps giving!

What we all want to see now is Paul Pogba's name on the scoresheet. The Frenchman has played some fine football, pulling off some crazy long passes and helping ease the workload on Bruno and the rest of the squad.

Bits from Solskjaer's Press Conference:

- His thoughts on Villa's threat: Since the lockdown they've shown that they can hold their own. There have been tight games, they've clearly worked on their shape and counter attacks of which they are the most powerful ones in the league. They spring quickly and are good at set pieces and have first contact players.

- David De Gea's term at United: De Gea has had some fantastic seasons, next year in the 10th. I think he's proven Eric Steele right, that we believed in him. He had a bit of a tough ride earlier on with the physicality of the football in England but for me he has been the best GK in the world over the last 9-10 years. Just to work with him closely, you can see he's still keen to learn and is working hard.

- Jack Grealish: He caused us a problem in the last game. Both Grealish on the left and El Ghazi on the right, fantastic goal. There's been lots said and talked about him and we need to be aware of him. What he does is attracts players to him and create space for others. There's just not one player in that Villa team, there's many of them.

- On how he manages to keep the whole squad happy: There's not many that haven't played in the last two weeks. There's so many games now and they all know they are fit. They all know they are available, valued and they're going to be important for us whatever minutes they play. There's lots to play for, trophies, FA Cup, top 3-4 places in the PL. The group is very time knitted and they know they've got a part to play.

- Matic and McTominay: Scott obviously is still a young boy, 7-8 years younger that Matic and Matic has been on record saying how much he rates McTominay, can see almost himself in him. The two of them can bounce off each other, never easy. So many times I've told Matic that I'm going to play Scott and he accepts it because he rates him. I speak to Scott and he rates him too, so they accept it. I'm sure McTominay will learn a lot from Matic.

- Win all games: Yeah, of course, you never know what's going to happen. It looks like the teams around us are playing well but there are so many games, we just need to focus on the next one and the next one and if we win every single one of them of are in the 4. We can't rely on help from anyone else.

- Nathan Ake rumours: I've got 7 center-backs so I don't know where that's coming from, we're fine.

- Bruno Fernandes' involvement: I think it's gone both ways. Bruno came into the club seeing how many good players are at ManUtd, that we've helped him show his attributes as well. I think it has been a good little relationship that has been blossoming. He can also feel that we are going to help him improve and definitely, Bruno has come in and lifted everyone as well. Very, very good start so far.

- Team mentality and confidence: As a footballer you know you can't just pick your confidence from the fridge. You have to have it from what you do every day in training but the results they matter and now the last 16 games unbeaten have given us more confidence. But 16 games is nowhere near what a ManUtd team should strive towards. So we should still go many games unbeaten if we focus on the right things.