Manchester United have a long injury list heading into their Boxing Day clash against Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Erik ten Hag’s side recently dropped to eight in the Premier League table after a disappointing 2-0 loss against West Ham on Saturday afternoon. It was a dire start to the festive period for the Reds, although we were given a boost on Christmas Eve as Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s deal to acquire 25% of the club was officially announced.
The game itself was yet another where United failed to score a goal in the league – and our 13th defeat of the season to make matters worse. Rasmus Hojlund will be aiming to address our goalscoring issue in the New Year and he has yet to open his account in the Premier League.
However, Hojlund came off after 57 minutes against West Ham and Ten Hag explained after the game that the player had been ill in the week.
Raphael Varane was an absentee for the match due to illness, but there are not expected to be any delays with his return, therefore he should be fit to face Aston Villa tonight.
“I think hopefully Raphael Varane will return,” Ten Hag said in his pre-match press conference, as per Goal.
“And for the rest, maybe Amad Diallo, we’ll see how far he is. He has trained now for two weeks. They are probably the ones who can maybe return.”
The Reds were without their four first-choice central defenders on Saturday. This led to the convincing first team debut of Willy Kambwala, who we could see start against Villa depending on what defence Ten Hag opts for. He also has Jonny Evans available.
On another note, Diogo Dalot is available again after serving a one-match ban for his red card against Liverpool.
Villa will be without Matty Cash and Boubacar Kamara due to suspensions.
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