Manchester United v Aston Villa: Carrick without Baleba and Martínez, and Emery has never won at Old Trafford

Manchester United host Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Sunday 8 November at 17:30 CET, the last Premier League game before the international break, with United 17th in the table on seven points and Villa 10th on 12. The licensed fixture feed on this site gives United one win, four draws and four defeats from nine games, one place above the relegation zone and level on points with Crystal Palace. Villa were unbeaten in the league in October and their manager, Unai Emery, was nominated for the month’s manager award on Thursday.

Why it matters

For Michael Carrick’s United the question is whether Tuesday changed anything. United came from two goals down to beat Roma 3-2 in the Champions League on 3 November, with two goals from Matheus Cunha, who was then sent off. Before that they had lost three in a row, the last of them 0-2 at Chelsea on 31 October, when Morgan Rogers scored early in the second half and Cole Palmer added a penalty after Lisandro Martínez had been sent off for two yellow cards within two minutes, according to ESPN’s report. ESPN counted the Chelsea game as United’s ninth match without a win in all competitions, the first such run since 1988-89. Carrick said on Friday, in BBC Sport’s account of his press conference: “We scored some goals from nowhere.” And: “Nothing is done yet.”

For Villa it is a chance to go into the break in the top half with a win at a ground where Emery has never won. He said so himself on Friday, on the club’s website: “Four years I am here, travelling to Manchester to play against them, we have lost.” He called Old Trafford “a huge challenge” for himself and the players. Villa’s week has been a mixed one: a club statement on Wednesday said the chairman, Nassef Sawiris, and Emery had agreed a commitment to the next phase of the project “beyond 2029”, and on Tuesday night Villa lost 0-3 at Barcelona, Lamine Yamal scoring after seven minutes and Raphinha twice after the break, their first defeat in six European games, according to the club’s report. Emery’s own summary: “We started fantastic in the Champions League, but we lost in Barcelona 3-0.”

Team news

United: Carlos Baleba, the midfielder signed from Brighton in the summer, is out for “a number of weeks” with the hamstring injury he suffered against Roma, Carrick said on Friday, as The Guardian reported: “It’s definitely not this week and it won’t be any time over the international break.” Lisandro Martínez is suspended after his red card at Chelsea; the licensed availability notes used by this site list him as banned until 22 November. Patrick Dorgu, out since a hamstring problem with Denmark in October, trained at the start of the week, and Carrick said United have “got to be patient with Pat”. The same notes list Luke Shaw, Marcus Rashford, Manuel Ugarte and Benjamin Sesko as injured with no return date. Cunha’s red card came in a UEFA competition and no allowed source read by this site states whether he is available for Sunday, so this piece does not say either way; the official teams are due at about 16:30 CET.

Villa: Matty Cash is suspended for one game after his fifth booking of the season in the 1-1 draw with Fulham. Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who has missed the last five games, faces a late test; Emery said on Friday: “Aaron is close and tomorrow we’ll see if he’s training normally and feeling good.” Matteo Ruggeri and Amadou Onana are out, Onana long-term. Brian Madjo returns after missing the Barcelona game. “I think the other players are available,” Emery said.

The recent record

The last meeting was at Old Trafford on 15 March 2026, when United won 3-1: Casemiro with a header, Ross Barkley’s reply for Villa, then Cunha and the substitute Sesko, according to United’s own account of Carrick’s reaction. Emery’s four-year record at Old Trafford, by his own count, includes a 3-2 defeat in the League Cup in his first season.

Villa’s October: a 2-2 draw with Brentford after the last international break, a 1-0 win at Newcastle, a 2-1 win over Manchester City and the 1-1 draw with Fulham, in which Nicolas Jackson scored and a Zion Suzuki own goal levelled it, according to the club’s nomination piece and Sky Sports’ report. Jackson is in the running for the league’s player of the month and Suzuki for save of the month.

How to read the market

BettingBeast’s feed, which this site reads at least once an hour, did not carry this game at the 06:23 CET capture on Saturday, so there is no price on the card and none is quoted here. Four of the weekend’s Premier League games were priced at that time (Leeds v Tottenham, Arsenal v Hull, Fulham v Newcastle and Nottingham Forest v Manchester City); the five Sunday games were not. If the feed adds the game, the card on this page will not pick it up by itself, because the match id is not yet known.

What to watch

The United midfield without Baleba, Ugarte and the suspended Martínez behind it: who partners Bruno Fernandes is the first thing to read off the team sheet at 16:30 CET. Whether Villa’s Jackson, scorer against Fulham and in the running for the league’s player of the month, gets the chances he had at Villa Park. And the first goal: United’s comeback against Roma ended a run of nine games without a win by ESPN’s count, and a Villa lead would ask Old Trafford to do on Sunday what it did on Tuesday. A lean: a game with goals at both ends looks more likely than a tight one, given the two defences and the last two meetings, though United’s league form argues for caution about any United win.

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