Birmingham, United Kingdom: Manchester United's winless run stretched to five games in a 0-0 draw at Aston Villa on Sunday that did little to ease the pressure on Erik ten Hag. Bruno Fernandes hit the crossbar with the best effort from either side with a second-half free-kick but United have now failed to score in their last three Premier League games. A point leaves Ten Hag's men still down in 14th, having won just two of their opening seven league games of the season.
Fifth-placed Villa missed the chance to move into the top four as they were unable to repeat their heroics of beating Bayern Munich in midweek. United's 3-0 humiliation on home soil by Tottenham last weekend had plunged Ten Hag's job back into peril. A 3-3 draw against Porto in the Europa League on Thursday did the Dutchman's case little favours as United blew an early two-goal lead to trail 3-2 before Harry Maguire's injury-time leveller.
Ten Hag reacted by dropping centre-backs Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt after their chastening night in Portugal with Maguire and veteran Jonny Evans brought back in to the starting line-up. Villa had a far more memorable European night in midweek when Bayern were beaten 1-0 as the Champions League returned to Birmingham for the first time in over 40 years. Both sides showed signs of fatigue as the match failed to spark into life.
Ten Hag controversially replaced Marcus Rashford at half-time in Porto after he had scored and set up Rasmus Hojlund's second for United i.