Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester United: Poor display sees Reds held by 10-man Villa

Quite possibly the least impressive winning streak of all time is over after a poor display saw Van Gaal's men draw with ten-man Aston Villa.

Christian Benteke scored the only goal of the first half to leave United with work to do, but a header from Radamel Falcao followed by a ludicrous red card for Gabriel Agbonlahor made it seem as though United would continue their run. Yet a lacklustre display and a dearth of creativity saw the score finish 1-1.

United started off brightly and looked comfortable on the ball, but were punished when the ball fell to Benteke from a set-piece, and he calmly stepped inside and curled a superb effort into the top corner.

Despite having Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Radamel Falcao on the pitch, shots and chances were at a premium for the Reds,  and Villa looked increasingly composed as the half wore on.

That changed in the second half when a fine cross from Ashley Young found Falcao lurking in the six-yard box to nod home, and United were looking more and more dominant. They then had a huge reprieve as Agbonlahor was wrongly sent off for a fairly inocuous challenge on Ashley Young, who rather sold it by exaggerating the extent of his injury.

Yet United's reaction was baffling, suddenly dropping off and failing to contend with an increased intensity from their opponents. There were few more chances, and indeed Villa might have won through near misses from Leandro Bacuna and Charles N'Zogbia.

So, not a great performance or result. We could've probably seen this coming - throughout the little run, we didn't play at all well for most of it, and hopefully we can start to fix a few things. Ideally, by never playing a back three ever again. That'd be a nice start.