This started off so brightly with Martin O’Neill handing Fabian Delph a rare start in place of the injured Emile Heskey and the home side lined up in my favourite 4-2-3-1 formation with Delph and Petrov providing the solid platform for the front four to work from.

Villa enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges and Carlos Cueller deservedly put us into the lead just before the 20th minute with a looping header that left van der Sar flapping in the wind. Crucially, the goal came as a result of second phase play after Delph has retained possession from a cleared corner and fed Downing to launch another cross in. Cuellar cleverly dummied Downing’s centre and Rafael was forced to dive in to stop the ball falling to Richard Dunne. His rushed clearance only went as far as the Spaniard who calmly nodded the ball back in the direction it came from.

It was no more than Villa deserved and it was clear that the difference in this game would be Fabian Delph in the middle. Not only was he acting as an extra defensive player alongside Petrov, he carried the ball in the middle and, most importantly, constantly mopped up loose balls in the middle that Heskey couldn’t have done. This has been a constant weakness for Villa this season and it seemed that the solution had presented itself.

However, Utd pressed on, as you would expect, and just a few minutes later Nani hit a long cross over the top and found Giggs unmarked at the far corner of the 6 yard box to volley. Unfortunately for Villa, Giggs scuffed his shot and sent the ball flying into James Collins’ knee and you know what happened next. There’s no blame attached in the own goal, but Nani was in acres of space to make the cross and Giggs was unchallenged in his effort on goal.

Villa initially had the wind taken out of their sails, but soon came back into the game and Nani appeared to hand us a major opportunity when he was rightly sent off with around an hour to go. His two footed, over the top challenge on Petrov gave the referee no choice and he had to go. Fortunately, Stan didn’t appear to be injured from the tackle.

Villa pressed for the rest of the half, but not too hard, rightly keeping their powder dry for the second half.

Alex Ferguson sent Valencia on in place of Paul Scholes, obviously looking to maintain some width in a 4-4-1. Villa didn’t start quite as brightly as I had hoped. Although it was refreshing to see a side of Utd’s quality dropping off, even though they were away from home and down to 10 men, it was also frustrating to see Villa having to force the game.

Utd worked hard on isolating James Milner, operating in a pocket behind Gabby, in front of Delph and Petrov. Villa couldn’t find a way through and were restricted to sending the ball sideways across the pitch, back and forth, without any real sign of the guile to find an opening.

MON decided to try a different tact for the last half an hour by withdrawing the impressive Delph for John Carew. At least with Milner dropping deeper, alongside Petrov, it would allow him to get more into the game. I’m not sure everyone was impressed with this move though and I have to confess that I feel as if the player who was really making the difference tonight was taken out, which can only have lifted Utd.

John Carew was not going to have one of those unplayable games tonight. Frankly he looks like he moves in slow motion most of the time lately. In fairness to him, what he needs is quality crosses fed to him and Utd were too cute to allow us much joy down the wings.

Carew had only been on the pitch for 6 minutes when Petrov was forced to limp off with what looked like may have been a knock to the Achilles, but don’t quote me on that. Steve Sidwell was immediately dispatched into the fray, leaving us with 0% from the starting pairing in the middle that was so effective.

From there the game ebbed and flowed with neither side creating much, but Utd showing dangerous signs that the likes of Wayne Rooney were more than capable of turning on something special to steal a late winner.

And it would have been a steal too. This was a well earned point from Villa and they never looked daunted facing Utd as they may have in the past. Of course, it’s hard not to be a little disappointed that we didn’t get more at home playing against 10 men for two thirds of the match, but this makes it 4 points we’ve taken from the Reds this season and I think we’d all have settled for that at the beginning of the season.

I was seriously very, very impressed with Fabian Delph tonight, he did everything well. He kept it simple, his positioning and movement was excellent, he kept his head in the tackle, he made short passes and, as his confidence grew in the game, he made one or two superb long passes, dropping the ball on a dime from 40 yards. He carried the ball well when needed, but most important thing he brought to the game was second phase ball.

I was also very happy to be vindicated in seeing the 4-2-3-1 working every bit as well as I figured it might. Against Man Utd by the way. While Delph’s performance is worth singling out, it only worked so well alongside Petrov, but it’s so interesting to note how they work as a pair anchoring a 5 man midfield compared to being the central pair in a 4-4-2. Perhaps settling in has been a factor, but it was like night and day compared to seeing these two play alongside each other at the beginning of the season.

Overall, I have to be 90% happy with that, with the remaining 10% maybe a little frustrated that we couldn’t find a way to put Utd on the ropes a little more early in the second half. Sometimes MON is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. I think that making a change after an hour was probably the right thing to do, but bringing Delph off wouldn’t have been my choice, all things being equal. Then again, I don’t have the same view and information he does from the technical area.

Other results very much went our way on the night with Chelsea losing to Everton, Tottenham losing to Wolves, Liverpool losing to Arsenal and Birmingham losing to West Ham. Utd might well be grateful that they didn’t join that group of losers tonight, while we may well rue not making up a little more ground than the single point.

Statshack to follow later some time, but like Saturday’s game, I have a major snow storm on my doorstep again and that’s taking priority right now. Perhaps I can work that 10% frustration out shovelling show!! If there’s something good at all to focus on it’s that Nani will be missing the Carling Cup final through suspension now and he looked like a player who was finally starting to find his place in this Utd side and for my money was instrumental in the impressive destruction of Arsenal last time out.

On that note, I’d almost forgotten how this Manchester side had completely destroyed Arsenal so recently. Not a bit of it during this match, Villa had them very well matched, even before the sending off. There you go, I feel better already!