Premier League preview: Manchester United v Aston Villa

Manchester United will be hoping to rebound from Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to Wigan when they host Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Sir Alex Ferguson saw his team’s lead at the top of the English Premier League eroded to five points after the defeat – which came from a glorious Shaun Maloney strike – and Manchester City’s 4-0 thumping of West Brom.

With a clash between the Manchester giants still to come at Etihad Stadium on April 30, Ferguson would dearly like to avoid another slip-up against opposition his team are expected to beat.

Alex McLeish’s Villa side sit in 15th place in the league and head into the game in reasonable form after successive 1-1 draws against Liverpool at Anfield and Stoke at Villa Park.

In their other meeting this season, United had a 20th-minute strike from Phil Jones to thank for their 1-0 win in Birmingham on December 3.

Both teams have some big names unavailable for the clash because of injury, although Manchester United welcomed back Nani with an appearance off the bench in the Wigan clash, and Michael Owen is nearing a return from a thigh strain.

But Darren Fletcher is still battling a bowel illness, Anderson is hampered by a hamstring injury and Nemanja Vidic is out for the season with a knee problem.

Despite the extensive list of absentees, Ferguson’s squad is still in better shape than McLeish’s – with star Darren Bent ruled out for the rest of the campaign with an ankle injury.

Fabian Delph (ankle), Ciaran Clarke (knee), Richard Dunne (collar bone), Marc Albrighton (thigh), Stephen Warnock (ankle) and Chris Herd (head knock) are all under clouds, while club captain Stiliyan Petrov was recently diagnosed with acute leukaemia.