Aston Villa & Manchester United Draw Blank

Villa were looking to build on last Saturday's fantastic 2-0 win away at Arsenal and knew that they could leapfrog the Gunners if they could pick up at least a point this evening.

United, without £30 million striker Dimitar Berbatov for the trip to Villa Park, had the chance to move to within six points of Liverpool and Chelsea after both clubs were held to goalless draws this afternoon.

First Half:

The game started off in a lively fashion, with both sides enjoying good spells of possession for the first five minutes although both defences were keeping any real threats on goal at bay.

Cristiano Ronaldo had United's first real effort on goal in the 14th minute when he thumped the ball high toward the right hand corner of the goal, but Brad Friedel was more than equal to it and tipped it out for a corner.

Wayne Rooney played a fantastic long ball to Carlos Tevez from the right hand side of the pitch in the 15th minute, but Gareth Barry was on hand to marshal the Argentine away from goal.

In the 18th minute, Nigel Reo-Coker broke forward from his right-back position and after going unchallenged produced a good long range shot, but Edwin Van Der Sar made quite a comfortable save.

On the half-hour mark, James Milner had a chance to test Edwin Van Der Sar with a long range free-kick, but his low effort went well wide of the target.

Ronaldo's first free-kick in the 22nd minute was aimed straight at the wall, and his second in the 36th minute went wide of the left hand post.

Rooney played a superb ball through to Park in the 38th minute, but the Korean failed to take full advantage of the situation.

Only seconds after, Park almost got on the end of a Rooney cross from the right-hand side of the pitch, but again the midfielder failed to get anything on the ball.

Second Half

Four minutes after the interval, an Ashley Young cross come shot almost found its way into the top left hand corner, but Van Der Sar was able to tip it wide for a corner kick.

United had a brilliant chance to break the deadlock in the 62nd minute but Wayne Rooney of all people managed to blaze his effort well over the bar.

Michael Carrick played a splendid ball over his head outside the penalty area and found Rooney in space on the right hand side of the box, but the England international somehow smashed it high and wide from very close range.

Four minutes later, Gareth Barry's long range shot flew just wide of the right hand corner.

Both sides seemed to cancel each other out for the remainder of the game, thanks largely to some strong defensive displays from both sides.

On reflection, while United were perhaps a little more dangerous in front of goal, both sides really deserved a share of the spoils.

Team Line-Ups

Aston Villa: Friedel, Reo-Coker, Davies, Laursen, Young, Sidwell (Carew 81), Petrov, Barry, Milner, Agbonlahor, Young
Subs Not Used: Guzan, Harewood, Knight, Salifou, Shorey, Gardner

Manchester United: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo (Anderson 82), Park, Carrick, Giggs, Rooney, Tevez (Nani 71)
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Welbeck, Evans, Gibson, R Da Silva

Ricky Brooks, Goal.com