Aston Villa and Manchester United take top billing in the Premier League on Sunday after a contrasting midweek in Europe.
UEFA Champions League football was welcomed back to Villa Park on a raucous night as Jhon Duran’s brilliant finish downed Bayern Munich 1-0.
If that performance underlined the impression of Villa as a club on the up under Unai Emery, a topsy-turvy 3-3 draw against Porto in the UEFA Europa League only heightened the sense of shambles and potential end-game around Erik ten Hag’s United.
The October international break and the space it potentially creates for Old Trafford’s powerbrokers to make their next move looms, although this year’s FA Cup final showed Ten Hag has a knack for getting a result in tough circumstances exactly when he needs it.
The Sporting News is following Aston Villa vs. Manchester United match live, providing live updates and commentary
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Aston Villa vs. Manchester United score
| 2nd Half | Goal scorers | |
| Aston Villa | 0 | |
| Man Utd | 0 |
Venue: Villa Park, Birmingham
Referee: Robert Jones (England)
Keep track of every game and every goal via SN’s live Premier League scoreboard
Lineups:
Aston Villa (4-3-3, right to left): 23. Emiliano Martinez (GK) — 2. Matty Cash, 4. Ezri Konsa (3. Diego Carlos), 14. Pau Torres, 12. Lucas Digne — 19. Jaden Philogene, 6. Ross Barkley, 8. Youri Tielemans — 31. Leon Bailey (9. Jhon Duran), 11. Ollie Watkins, 27. Morgan Rogers
Man United (4-2-3-1, right to left): 24. Andre Onana (GK) — 3. Noussair Mazraoui (2. Victor Lindelof), 5. Harry Maguire (4. Matthijs de Ligt), 35. Jonny Evans, 20. Diogo Dalot — 14. Christian Eriksen, 37. Kobbie Mainoo — 17. Alejandro Garnacho, 8. Bruno Fernandes, 10. Marcus Rashford (21. Antony) — 9. Rasmus Hojlund
MORE: All the latest Man Utd news | Premier League schedule for 2024/25 | Latest Premier League top scorer rankings
Aston Villa vs. Manchester United live updates, highlights, and commentary
68 mins: Fernandes hits the crossbar! Absolutely fabulous free-kick from the Portugal star, who has been on the margins of this one. Antony plonks the rebound out for a goal kick.
67 mins: Cash fouls Garnacho and United have a rare attacking situation here. Free-kick about 25 yards out slightly to the left of the goal. Fernandes to take.
64 mins: Ten Hag opts to save Rashford from himself. Antony is on in his place.
62 mins: Bailey goes past Rashford, who hangs his leg out. A clear foul and the referee opts not to dish out the second yellow card that absolutely could have come his way. Duran on for Bailey before the right-wing free-kick is taken.
61 mins: Watkins and Rogers continue to look the most likely and try to pull off a one-two. De Ligt reads their intentions and boots clear. Jhon Duran is getting ready to come on. Uh-oh, Marcus…
59 mins: Rashford sprints back, clumsily fouls Cash and is booked. Perhaps that’s why he doesn’t track back sometimes. No huge Villa chances to speak of yet, but the past 10 minutes give the impression of United hanging on a little bit.
57 mins: The next corner is also short and ends with Digne passing it out for a United goalkick. That wasn’t how it looked in the playbook. From open play, that’s more like. it. Evans can’t make the challenge on Rogers and Watkins fires a dipping effort across Onana and just over.
56 mins: Nice interplay from Villa down the United left sees Cash’s cutback blocked behind for a corner. The hosts go short again and Tielemans is in space 25 yards out. He strikes it sweetly and Onana pushes behind.
51 mins: Villa move smoothly up the field and Digne wins a corner off Garnacho. Tielemans cuts it back to Cash on the corner of the box, who wallops his shot high and wide.
49 mins: Rashford cuts in off the left and lets go of a rasping right-footed strike. Martinez taking no chances and tips over the top. From the corner. Garnacho drags wide from the edge of the box having failed to really set himself.
Kickoff: 2nd Half
We’re back underway and it’s a double change for United. De Ligt replaced Maguire as expected but Mazraoui is also off, meaning a first Premier League appearance since March for Victor Lindelof out at right-back.
Halftime
It looks like we might see one of United’s jettisoned centre-backs when the match resumes. This game has been low on incident or quality, which given the recent turbulence endured by his side might suit Ten Hag down to the ground. For Villa, it feels like a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show in the aftermath of their own over Bayern. Here’s to a better second half!
45 mins+3: Another Dinge free-kick and another sub-par delivery. The second ball into the box is more probing but it comes to nought. Maguire is down. Now he’s hobbling and looks to be in a lot of pain with his knee.
45 mins+1: Into three added minutes. Hojlund darts after a ball over the top but Carlos shuts the door and dispatches his man to the turf.
44 mins: Tielemans plonks the free-kick right into Onana’s gloves. This really hasn’t been a very good game.
43 mins: Garnacho absent-mindedly returns the favour and Villa have a free-kick on the left in a crossing position.
40 mins: Maguire does well to read a deflected Bailey shot and head it away from the United goalmouth. Digne gives away a cheap foul on Garnacho and the Villa attack ends.
37 mins: Watkins looks to dart around the outside of Maguire, who blocks him off with his arm and is booked. Villa free-kick in a dangerous position on the right flank.
36 mins: Digne arcs in a lovely cross from the left and Bailey arrives at the back post. He should head it but elects to volley and shins it over his own head. Not ideal.
32 mins: Space for Rogers to operate on the break. The attack ends with Evans again impressing. Tielemans gets Villa back on the front foot and they win the corner. It comes to nought.
29 mins: Bailey to Barkley in the area. The Liverpudlian’s touch is heavy and it allows Evans to make the challenge and win the foul.
26 mins: Dalot gets away with a slip as the ball ricochets off Watkins. United will be happy enough that Villa have failed to create too much of note. Perhaps their exertions against Bayern and the emotional high of that midweek result will be a factor after all.
20 mins: Philogene is allowed to advance and lets fly from 25 yards. The shot is well struck but curls fairly comfortably wide in the end. Nevertheless, it’s another worrying example of United’s passive efforts in front of their own backline.
17 mins: A cute pass from Dalot releases Hojlund down Villa’s right channel. Carlos does his first piece of work today in authoritative fashion.
11 mins: Villa forced into an early change as Ezri Konsa makes way for Diego Carlos. Bad news for England too, heading into the international break.
8 mins: As the form book would suggest, Villa look by far the sharper side. Rogers and Watkins get too much time and space to exchange passes and the former thunders just wide from the edge of the box.
4 mins: The reshaped United backline deal with Digne’s free-kick from the right.
3 mins: Eriksen was another of Ten Hag’s surprise selections and the experienced midfielder is already into the book for pulling down Rogers. Not ideal.
Kickoff: 1st Half
United get us underway for what could be a pivotal 90 minutes for the club and their manager.
2 mins before kickoff: Here come the teams. Strap yourselves in!
20 mins before kickoff: Ten Hag has attributed his defensive choices to rotation and the specific requirements of facing this Villa side. This pacey, direct Villa side. Hmmmm.
40 mins before kickoff: Gary Neville has had his say on United’s surprise defensive selection, telling Sky Sports that it feels like the sort of decision a manger makes when they are approaching the end.
I actually at one point thought Gary and Phil Neville might be fullbacks!
I must admit that if you think about the fact Manchester United have six centre-backs, if you’d said to me five or six weeks ago that you’d end up with Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire… Jonny Evans has been a fantastic centre-back, Harry Maguire’s a really good centre-back still
But if you’d said to me that they’d end up with these two at centre-back six or seven games in I’d have said there must be four injuries to the others. The fact that De Ligt and Martinez have been dumped to the bench… you can’t really argue with the decision from a footballing perspective because if you watch the goals United conceded in Porto they were horrific from De Ligt and Martinez’s point of view.
But just optically, from the point of view of the plan, the plan this season was for Erik ten Hag to establish his style of play, shift the team up the pitch, make them more aggressive, make them more in the style of what he wanted to implement.
United now are going to be camped at the edge of their box with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans. This is not the plan. So, for me, it’s a little bit like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
It feels a bit like when a manager is struggling at the end of his tenure and they throw the young players in or the players that they like or the players that they trust. It feels a little bit like that today. United have got results when Erik ten Hag has needed it in the past and we’ll see what happens in the next couple of hours.
1 hour before kickoff: Matty Cash returns at right-back for Villa, with Ezri Konsa shifting over to partner Pau Torres in the heart of defence. There is still no start for supersub Jhon Duran despite his latest heroics against Bayern Munich. Jaden Philogene is rewarded for his efforts in midweek with a first Premier League start.
👇 Our starting XI for this afternoon’s clash with Manchester United.#AVLMUN || #UpTheVilla pic.twitter.com/DJWUmEENZ5
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) October 6, 2024
1 hr 15 mins before kickoff: The lineups are in. Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho had a half each in Porto but each start in support of Rasmus Hojlund. The Dane scored in midweek and makes his first Premier League start of the season. Ten Hag makes a double change at centre-back, with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans in for Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez.
Kobbie Mainoo is fit to return. That means Manuel Ugarte joins his fellow summer signing De Ligt among the substitutes. Bruno Fernandes captains the side despite being sent off in his past two matches. The Premier League retrospectively overturned last week’s red card against Tottenham.
Your United squad for #AVLMUN 🫡#MUFC || #PL
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 6, 2024
1 hr 40 mins before kickoff: The mood around these two clubs could scarcely be more different heading into Sunday’s game. Jim Ratcliffe’s refusal to offer assurances over Ten Hag’s long-term future in the aftermath of the Porto draw felt ominous. Meanwhile, Unai Emery is a hero in tune with his fanbase, the sort of manager United have repeatedly tried and failed to find since the days of Sir Alex Ferguson.
2 hours before kickoff. Hello and welcome to The Sporting News’ live coverage of Aston Villa vs. Manchester United. Villa are on the crest of a Champions League wave, while under-fire United boss Erik ten Hag once again finds himself in the position of badly needing a positive result.
Aston Villa vs. Manchester United kick off time
This Premier League match takes place at Villa Park in Birmingham, United Kingdom and kicks off on Sunday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m. local time.
Here’s how that time translates across some of the major global territories:
| Date | Kickoff time | |
| USA | Sun, Oct. 6 | 9:00 a.m. ET |
| Canada | Sun, Oct. 6 | 9:00 a.m. ET |
| Australia | Sun, Oct. 6 | 11:00 p.m. AEST |
| UK | Sun, Oct. 6 | 2:00 p.m. BST |
| India | Sun, Oct. 6 | 6:30 p.m. IST |
Aston Villa vs. Manchester United lineups, team news
Villa have a couple of key injury issues heading into this clash. Midfielders Amadou Onana and Jacob Ramsey were both forced off against Bayern and miss out once more, though Leon Bailey makes a surprise return to the starting lineup.
Ross Barkley starts in midfield alongside Youri Tielemans, with John McGinn sidelined due to a hamstring issue. Jhon Duran once again has to be content with a place on the bench following his latest super-sub heroics against Bayern.
Aston Villa (4-3-3, right to left): E. Martinez (GK) — Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne — Philogene, Barkley, Tielemans — Bailey, Watkins, Rogers
Injured: Onana, Ramsey, McGinn, Kamara, Mings
Suspended: None
MORE: All the latest Man Utd news | Premier League schedule for 2024/25 | Latest Premier League top scorer rankings
Ten Hag has made the startling call of dropping both Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt to start experienced duo Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire at centre-back.
Marcus Rashford was substituted at halftime of the Porto draw, which his manager described as being important for “rotation”. He keeps his place and Alejandro Garnacho comes into the lineup.
Manuel Ugarte is on the bench as Kobbie Mainoo returns to partner Christian Eriksen in central midfield. Captain Bruno Fernandes is eligible to start after his red card against Tottenham was overturned.
Man United (4-2-3-1, right to left): Onana (GK) — Mazraoui, Maguire, Evans, Dalot — Eriksen, Mainoo — Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford — Hojlund
Injured: Malacia, Mount, Shaw, Yoro, Lindelof
Suspended: None
Aston Villa vs. Manchester United live stream, TV channel
Here is how to watch the match in some of the world’s major regions:
United States:
- TV channel: USA Network
- Live stream: Fubo
This Premier League clash is also available for live TV broadcast on USA Network. Streaming options are available on Fubo.
Canada:
Australia:
- TV channel: _
- Live stream: Optus Sport
India:
- TV channel: _
- Live stream: Jio TV, Disney+ Hotstar
UK:
- TV channel: Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Premier League
- Live stream: Sky GO, Sky Sports website