Month: July 2023

Manchester United will take on Aston Villa for the second time in less than a week after their humiliating loss against the Villans at Villa Park on Sunday in the Premier League. United faced a Villa side that had a new form of motivation after getting themselves a new manager in Unai Emery following the sacking of Steven Gerrard as manager. It was evidently a different Aston Villa side as they played with a lot of fluidity and energy, two things they were lacking under Gerrard during his final few weeks at the club.

After scoring two quick goals in the opening fifteen minutes of the match, Aston Villa would then cruise to a handsome 3-1 win over Erik ten Hag and his men in what was a torrid afternoon for Manchester United. It was a tough afternoon particularly because Villa outplayed United in every department, with the Red Devils failing to create clear-cut chances, thereby causing them not to score goals

Not even Cristiano Ronaldo’s presence was enough to inspire the team to a top performance and they were dealt a huge blow in their quest to rise into the top four spot in the league table. With everything that went wrong on Sunday afternoon for the Devils, ten Hag will be looking to bounce back immediately from the terrible defeat and he is expected to utilize his best starting XI for this fixture.

Anthony Martial has returned from his injury and is expected to be in contention for the game but it is not yet certain if it is the same for Antony. Marcus Rashford was below oar on Sunday and so was Ronaldo. Both players could be dropped to the bench depending on the availability of the two aforementioned players

Here’s how they could line up:

David de Gea,  Malacia, Lindelof, Martinez, Dalot, Casemiro, Fernandes, Eriksen, Martial, Sancho, Rashford.

Former Barcelona defender Thomas Vermaelen has revealed, in a statement that would provoke the Catalan giants and their fans, that he regrets the time he spent at the club and wishes he had not left Arsenal in the first place. After sealing a £14 million transfer from the Gunners to the Camp Nou back in the summer transfer window of 2014, there were high hopes that he would be going there to have a better career for himself. But, sadly, that was not going to be the case. The former Belgium international central defender had several niggling injuries as a Barca player and they played a huge part in having a negative impact on his career.

At a point, he was limited to just seven league starts in three years and has only made one appearance, coming off the bench in the Copa del Ray, during that season. Vermaelen spent the previous year on loan to Serie A outfit Roma but again only made four starts.

He was a 32-year-old then and had the option to move onto pastures new in the summer transfer window of that year but he instead decided to stay behind and fight for his place at the Nou Camp once more. But now he is regretting that choice as he watches the latter years of his career pass him by.

Speaking in a recent interview, Vermaelen said that in the summer, he thought he was going to be positive and tried to look on the bright side of things when he was making the decision to remain at Barcelona. However, he says that after eventually seeing the situation at the club, he became convinced that he made the wrong decision because he was not seeing what he expected before concluding on remaining at the club.