England: Aston Villa Defeats Manchester United and Secures 3rd Place

Aston Villa faced a tough match against Manchester United but managed to extend their impressive streak with a 2-1 victory on Sunday, marking their tenth consecutive win in all competitions. This victory solidifies their position on the Premier League podium after the 17th matchday.

The Birmingham team, achieving its seventh straight win in the league, holds the third spot in the standings with 36 points, just one point behind Manchester City and three points behind the leaders, Arsenal.

However, there is a significant gap behind this top trio: Chelsea and Liverpool are seven points behind (29 points), followed by the excellent promoted team Sunderland (27 points) and Manchester United (7th, 26 points), who remain inconsistent and lose ground in the race for Champions League qualification with this defeat.

Ruben Amorim's players dominated most of the match but faced a superb performance from Morgan Rogers, who opened the scoring just before halftime against the run of play with a stunning curled shot into the top corner (1-0, 45th minute).

Manchester United equalized shortly after, capitalizing on a rare defensive mistake by the Villains, as Matty Cash was dispossessed by Patrick Dorgu, allowing Matheus Cunha to beat Emiliano Martinez (1-1, 45+3).

But Rogers regained the lead for Aston Villa, once again outpacing his marker Leny Yoro to curl in another winning shot just before the hour mark (2-1, 58th). Despite several big chances late in the game, Manchester could not equalize.

An additional piece of bad news added to the Red Devils' frustration was Bruno Fernandes' thigh injury, which forced him to leave the game at halftime. Coach Ruben Amorim stated he could be sidelined for "several matches" after the game.

Fernandes appeared to have suffered a hamstring injury towards the end of the first half; he continued to play for a few minutes but did not return after the break.

"It's a muscle injury, and I think he'll miss several games, but I don't know how many exactly; we'll see," said the Portuguese coach regarding his compatriot, who had started every league game since the season began.

"You can never control these things; we'll see. He's a very fit guy, so he can recover quickly, but I don't know," Amorim added.

Bruno Fernandes, 31, will thus miss the Boxing Day match against Newcastle on December 26 and likely the game against Wolverhampton on December 30.