Aston Villa at Old Trafford: Live text, banter, links and twittering like mad

First; Martin O'Neill is considering changing the formation. I know I go on about this, but he brought it up this time, so there is some hope. Second; Paul McGrath thinks Martin O'Neill is the natural successor to sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Lastly; never have a beer with a Liverpool fan after his team have just stolen three points.

This post will be updated by yours truly all day. I'll also be updating the Aston Villa Blog Twitter page for those on Twitter and wanting up dates that way. Twitter is short and quick, so they'll be more on that page but the interesting, more argumentative stuff here.

We have a chance today. It is, at the end of the day, eleven versus eleven and if anything is going to be in our favour it's that they have so many first team players not available to them. Yes, United have quality throughout the squad and they will pretty much play the same game, which is based on their quality, but having such a large number of players out can have an impact.

If we revert back to how we were playing during our good run, there is talk Sidwell might be back for today, then I can see potential. I can't see the future but one thing is for certain and that is, it won't be lambs to the slaughter like it was at Anfield when he names the starting eleven.

Moving on to the Paul McGrath story today. He has said that he thinks Martin O'Neill is a very good candidate to take over from Sir Alex and you know what, I agree.

When Sir Alex decides to eventually call it a day, there won’t be too many better choices to replace him than Martin O’Neill. He’d certainly be on my list because you need a certain aura to be in charge of Manchester United and I think Martin’s got that.

I wouldn’t say they are that similar in the way they do things. Sir Alex certainly doesn’t jump about as much as Martin does nowadays but they’ve both got that total will to win and both of them know how to inspire players to bring the best out of them. I’ll probably upset a lot of Villa fans by saying this, but I think Martin would be in with a good shout of replacing Sir Alex.
Paul McGrath, April 4th 2009

We're all entitled to our opinions and Paul McGrath can say pretty much whatever he wants and like I said, I agree with him; I think O'Neill would be a great man to take over the reigns from Old Trafford, but for the exactly what McGrath says above, that is why I don't think he will go.

Whoever manages United next will fail and whoever manages United next will actually turn out to not be their 'own man'. The next manager of United will be Jose Mourinho and he'll end up failing but he won't mind. Martin O'Neill is creating his own legacy - why go be part of another one?

Anyway, this is the match post, so back to the match. You can watch it online here with an excellent stream. Yes, you've got to pay but it's worth it, trust me.

Like I've said, we'll drop more stuff throughout the day here and on Twitter, but you can also feel free to contribute in the comments below. If they're any good, we might just use them throughout the site.

Team News Update

It looks like Martin Laursen isn't going to make it and there are growing fears he'll not make it back this season. Also, Bouma isn't going to make it according to Martin O'Neill after 'aggravating' his ankle last earlier this week.

Match Preview

Here is my little match preview but did you know that the last time Manchester United lost three Premier League matches on the bounce was in 2001. Since then, they've played 280 games. Click here for more from the BBC.

Team News

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, O'Shea, Evans, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Ronaldo, Giggs, Tevez.
Subs: Foster, Park, Welbeck, Gibson, Martin, Macheda, Eckersley.

Aston Villa: Friedel, Luke Young, Cuellar, Davies, Shorey, Milner, Petrov, Barry, Ashley Young, Carew, Agbonlahor.
Subs: Guzan, Delfouneso, Knight, Salifou, Reo-Coker, Gardner, Albrighton.