Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester United: Nani sees red as Villa earn point

Aston Villa extended their unbeaten run to nine matches after a 1-1 draw against a Manchester United side that played much of the game with ten men.

Carlos Cuellar put Villa ahead with a header on 18 minutes but James Collins diverted past his own goalkeeper for United to equalise before Nani’s two-footed challenge earned him a red card in an eventful game at Villa Park.

Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill opted for a five-man midfield with youngster Fabien Delph coming into the side in the place of Emile Heskey, who missed out with a hamstring injury, leaving Gabriel Agbonlahor to lead the line.

John Carew was expected to replace Heskey alongside Agbonlahor, but O’Neill’s decision to play a lone striker meant that the Norwegian had to settle for a place on the bench.

Manchester United reverted to a 4-5-1 formation, which has served them so well in recent weeks, with Paul Scholes returning to the side to join Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick in central midfield.

Dimitar Berbatov was dropped to the bench, despite getting on the score sheet at the weekend, and Rafael da Silva and Ryan Giggs replaced Gary Neville and Antonio Valencia in United’s only other changes from the side that thrashed Portsmouth 5-0 on Saturday.

Villa spurned the first chance of the game when Milner recovered from a poor first touch to deliver for Cuellar in the area but the Spaniard’s header was straight at Van der Sar.

It was Downing’s turn to strike for the home side after Ashley Young’s pass was laid into the path of the winger by Agbonlahor but the former Middlesbrough man fired wide from the edge of the area.

Nani stung the palms of Villa keeper Friedel with a free-kick from the edge of the box and the hosts nearly profited from a set-piece of their own moments later when Downing’s in-swinging free-kick was headed just over by Cuellar.

Downing was instrumental in Villa’s attacking play and he delivered another in-swinging cross into the box and Rafael could only clear into the path of Cuellar whose header flew past Van der Sar from ten yards.

Aston Villa’s lead didn’t last long as Nani’s cross found Giggs at the far post who fired across goal for Collins, under pressure from Scholes, to divert past his own goalkeeper for the Red Devils’ 10th own goal of the season.

United were down to ten men on the half hour when Nani went in for a challenge two-footed on Villa captain Petrov and the Portugal international was deservedly shown a red card by referee Peter Walton, which means that the winger will miss the League Cup final.

Petrov was not seriously hurt in the challenge but Sir Alex Ferguson’s tactics were, the Scotsman moved Fletcher out to the right side of midfield for the remainder of the first half.

Rooney caused problems for the Villa defence in the first half and Giggs found the on-form striker moments before half-time with an excellent through ball but Friedel raced out of his goal to claim the ball ahead of Rooney.

Sir Alex Ferguson brought on Valencia for Scholes at half-time which allowed Fletcher to return to the centre of midfield alongside Carrick.

Valencia had the first chance of the second half after his shot deflected off Luke Young for a corner but referee Peter Walton incorrectly ruled that the ball had not touched the Villa defender and awarded a goal kick.

The hosts couldn’t get started in the second half and Milner’s strike straight at Van der Sar was all they could show for the first 15 minutes after the break which prompted Martin O’Neill into making a change, the Villa boss brought on Carew for Delph to support Agbonlahor up front.

Villa were forced into another change when Sidwell replaced Petrov, who picked up an achilles injury, unrelated to the earlier challenge from Nani, and had to go straight down the tunnel to receive treatment.

Rooney sparked into life on the hour mark, he raced past Collins down the left-hand side before firing just over the Villa crossbar. The England forward then spun past Collins once again and set up Valencia in a decent position but the Ecuadorian was marginally offside.

Berbatov replaced Giggs after the Welshman appeared to pick up an injury and the Bulgarian immediately set up Rooney whose dipping shot looked to beat Friedel but the veteran keeper was alert to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Agbonlahor and Rooney went close late on but neither side could find a winner in an incident-packed game.