Manchester United woke up on Sunday morning in the Premier League relegation zone. Nottingham Forest’s stunning 3-1 win over Manchester City on Saturday pushed Michael Carrick’s side down to 18th in the table and into the Manchester United relegation zone, and now the Red Devils host Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Sunday (17:30 WAT) in a game they simply cannot afford to lose.
It is a remarkable fall for a club of United’s size. After nine league games, Carrick’s men have won just once, drawn four and lost four, collecting only seven points. They sit level on points with Crystal Palace in 19th, ahead only on goal difference, with bottom-placed Sunderland five points adrift of them both.
How Forest’s win dumped United into the bottom three
Forest did the damage in the late kick-off on Saturday. They were two goals up inside 18 minutes at the City Ground, defender Jair Cunha and striker Liam Delap both finding the net, and although Rayan Cherki pulled one back for City early in the second half, Delap sealed a famous 3-1 win in the 73rd minute.
The result was Forest’s second win of the season and it lifted them to 16th on nine points, but it came at United’s expense. Coventry’s 3-1 defeat at Everton earlier in the day left them 17th, also on nine points, so United slipped into the bottom three without kicking a ball.
Elsewhere on Saturday, Leeds United ended Tottenham’s three-match winning run with a 1-0 win at Elland Road, substitute Noah Okafor driving home the only goal in the 79th minute. Arsenal, meanwhile, stretched their lead at the top to six points with a 1-0 win over Hull City.
Carrick’s must-win Sunday to escape the Manchester United relegation zone
United at least arrive at Sunday’s game with something to build on. On Tuesday night in the Champions League, they came from two goals down to beat Roma at Old Trafford, Bruno Fernandes scoring a retaken penalty before Matheus Cunha’s late brace sealed a first win in ten games in all competitions. Carrick insisted afterwards that “anything’s possible” if his side can build on the comeback.
Aston Villa, though, will be no pushovers. Unai Emery’s side sit 10th with 12 points and are unbeaten in their last five league games, even after a difficult week in which they drew 1-1 with Fulham, were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Bournemouth and lost 3-0 at Barcelona in the Champions League.
United have not won a league game since August and have not kept a clean sheet in any of their nine Premier League matches this season. Carrick is also short of options: Lisandro Martinez is suspended, while Carlos Baleba, Benjamin Sesko, Manuel Ugarte and Luke Shaw are all injured. Cunha, at least, is available — the red card he received against Roma carries a UEFA ban that applies only to the trip to Sporting CP on 25 November.
History offers United some comfort. They have not lost at home to Villa since September 2021, and they won the last meeting between the sides 3-1 at Old Trafford in March. For more on Sunday’s Premier League action, check today’s predictions.
What a win — or another defeat — would mean
Victory on Sunday would lift United to ten points and out of the bottom three, above Forest and Coventry, and would give Carrick back-to-back wins for the first time in his reign. Another defeat, though, would leave them in the relegation zone heading into the international break, with the manager’s future under heavy scrutiny and the gap to safety growing by the week.
For a club that started the season talking about a title challenge, the maths is now brutally simple: win on Sunday, or spend the international break staring at the bottom three.
Photo: Arne Müseler, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 de) — collage by SportsBuddy.
