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Man United held away at Villa

22/11/2008

Manchester United failed to close the gap at the top of the Premier League after they were held to a goalless draw at Aston Villa this evening.

After seeing both Liverpool and Chelsea being held to draws at home, United had a golden chance to close to within five points of both teams with a game in hand. But despite an open game were both teams created good chances, neither could find the back of the net.

The best chance for Villa fell to England striker Gabriel Agbonlahor who hit his shot from inside the penalty area straight at Edwin van der Sar, and also had a penalty appeal waved away after being brought down by Nemanja Vidic.

Ji-Sung Park was prevented from scoring thanks to a last ditch tackle by Ashley Young and Wayne Rooney woefully miscued his shot when well placed in front of goal.

Villa, who leapfrogged Arsenal to fourth in the league with this point, were looking to end a run of 12 consecutive defeats against the champions and they should have taken an early lead. Martin Laursen headed a Luke Young free-kick into the path of Agbonlahor, but the striker only managed to find van der Sar with his tame shot.

Cristiano Ronaldo was his lively best and saw a typically blistering shot on goal palmed away by Brad Friedel in the Villa goal. Ronaldo then slid in a precise pass into the path of Park and with the South Korean racing towards goal, Young dived in with a brilliant tackle to save the day.

Villa started the second-half the better side and the felt they should have had a penalty on the hour mark when Vidic tackled Agbonlahor inside the area. But replays showed that the Serbian defender had won the ball.

Though the game was played had a very high tempo, the only real remaining chance of the game fell to Rooney. Michael Carrick played the ball behind the Villa defence for Rooney who had a one-on-one with Friedel, but the England star bundled his shot on goal.