This is third versus fourth, and it feels big for both teams’ seasons.
It is important for Michael Carrick that he gets back on track after suffering his first defeat as United manager, to 10-man Newcastle.
The wheels have come off for Aston Villa in a big way and Unai Emery was obviously right when he was so negative about his side’s title hopes.
It’s hard to make a case for Villa because they look really flat. They started the season poorly, and it looks like they are going to finish it poorly too.
Villa won 2-1 when they met before Christmas. Let’s go for a reverse of that scoreline.
Sutton’s prediction: 2-1
Angry Ginge’s prediction: What a game this is going to be – this is huge in the race for the top four. It’s at Old Trafford as well, so United are going to win. It won’t be Sesko who makes the difference this time – it will be Senne Lammens and Bruno Fernandes. 2-0
Angry Ginge on United’s hopes of making the Champions League places: To be honest, even under Ruben Amorim, I thought we were going to get top four. Seeing us hit the heights we have hit now under Carrick just makes me even more confident – standards are up, the players are up, morale is up. We are not untouchable, but whoever plays us has to be on their game to beat us.
Angry Ginge on whether Carrick should stay in charge beyond the end of the season: You can see what Carrick is doing, he is playing to the players’ strengths, not just trying to do his own stubborn thing. I hold my hands up, I was ‘Ruben in’ because I thought we were getting behind a process – we paid around £10m to get him from Sporting and Sir Jim [Ratcliffe] came out and said he needed to be there for three years, so I thought ‘ok, we will get behind him’.
But almost immediately Carrick comes in and things are better. I look at myself now and think ‘why was I even settling for that?’ We have got to give Carrick the job permanently. The results are there, the morale is there. He is 100% the right man.
AI’s prediction: 2-1
Leave a Reply