Reds stage comeback to thrash Villa...

United were in action this evening when they took on the much improved Aston Villa and they needed to win after Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea all won their games earlier in the day.

Vidic was absent from the Reds starting line-up along with Ronaldo, Saha and Hargreaves. Brazilian Anderson was selected alongside the ginger prince Paul Scholes in the centre of midfield while Nani and Giggs were deployed on the flanks, up front the gruesome twosome of Tevez and Rooney were paired together.

Villa started the game well and had United in trouble early in the opening period and went ahead with a hugely controversial header from a corner when Gabriel Agbonlahor opened the scoring, however the home side clearly had a player who was offside, but the linesman and referee Rob Styles gave the goal. Not long after, Villa had another good chance to score but this time the ball ran to safety after Laursen failed to connect, if he had he would have almost certainly have made it two-nil.

From that point on United took complete control with Tevez and Rooney linking up superbly and in midfield Anderson also looked at home again alongside Scholes in the Reds engine room.

The equaliser finally came about when Nani found Rooney at the far post after he ghosted in unnoticed behind the Villa back four, it was a simple but a very good goal. The Reds took the lead when Tevez threaded a quick ball into Rooney who wasted no time in despatching his shot beyond Carson. Just before the break United made it three-one when Pique's guided header was only partially cleared the ball only for it to fall at the feet of Rio Ferdinand whose shot found the back of the net after it first bounced up off the turf.

The second period started like the first with the visitors in complete control. United had Villa on the rack almost constantly as they ratched up the pressure, but despite opening up Martin O'Niell' side they couldn't finish them off.

Midway through that second period Nigel Reo-Coker received his marching orders after he collected his second yellow card, harshly in the view of the Villa manager who was left clutching at straws in his post-match interview.

Six minutes later Carson also went for an early bath after bringing down Tevez inside the box. Rooney took the resulting spot-kick, but Stuart Taylor made what was a relatively easy save diving low to his right - it wasn't to be his last save as not longer after he denied Tevez when the Argentine should really have scored.

The fourth and finally goal had comedy written all over it, Giggs who hadn't had a good game, nipped in between two players inside the Villa box, his effort on goal was deflected twice before it beat stand-in keeper Taylor, the Welshman looked slightly embarrassed when he claimed the goal.

From then on it was just about Fergie giving players such as Ronaldo, Fletcher and O'Shea a run out as United ran down the clock.

Ferguson will be very pleased with the result and overall performance. In particular the manager will no doubt be drooling over the partnership of Tevez and Rooney which is really starting to blossom, likewise Anderson looked very good playing alongside Scholes.

The Reds are showing signs that they are really getting into the groove now after a somewhat surprising low-scoring start to the season.

Man of the match Tevez - bring on Kiev.