By Brian Sears

12 November 2010

Aston Villa’s lunchtime match on Saturday pits them against Manchester United, the team against whom they have found it hardest to win points during the Premier League era. In their previous 36 meetings since summer 1992, Villa have won a mere 18 points, from three wins, nine draws and 24 defeats, for an average of half a point per game.

At the other end of the scale, Villa have 100 per cent records in the Premier League against Hull, Swindon and now Blackpool (see tables below), while faring well (two points per game or more on average) against an array of others.

But diligent trawling of the statistics has unearthed that United are not quite alone in letting have Villa as little as half a point per game.

The other club to have posed Villa such a dire challenge has been . . . Oldham. Villa met Oldham in the two opening seasons of the Premier League, and Villa could muster only 1-1 draws away each season, and lost both their home games, 0-1 in May 1993, and 1-2 in March 1994. So from four games they took just two points, or half a point per game.

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More stories mentioning Villa (Late add: And the post-match verdict from the Villablog)

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