Five Reactions From United's Win Over Aston Villa

It certainly wasn't the prettiest of results, but in the end, thanks to Phil Jones' 20th minute goal, Manchester United walked out of Villa Park 1-0 winners, something that has happened since 2007.

Ferdinand helped United post another shutout

1. Ahead of the game, the biggest fear was for United not to pick up anymore injuries, but that didn't happen as both Javier Hernandez and Rio Ferdinand were both forced off with non-contact injuries. Chicharito looked to have suffered a serious injury as his ankle buckle underneath him, but Sir Alex Ferguson has temporarily ruled him out for three to four weeks. In the last two games, the Reds have had five players forced off with injuries - which is never a good sign heading into a congestive fixture list in the winter months.

2. Considering that United have not won at Villa Park since 2007, this can be seen as bonus points come the end of the season. It was by no means a convincing win, and if anything, loads more questions were being raised about the desire to take the chance when it was presented. The problem is that the Reds had a lot of standpoint performances, but also some players who decided to only play in spurts. A lot of criticism has been dished out to United's center midfielders, but a make-shift partnership between Michael Carrick and Phil Jones seemed to be one that the boss should use in more games, at least until the injury jinx subsides.

3. How good is Jones, though? Not only did he score the eventual game-winner with a neat side-footed finish, but he also played lie a natural box-to-box midfielder AND slotted in central defense without a fuss. Not many people thought that he would have gotten the start in the center of the midfield, especially with Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs both fit, but Jones did more than enough to prove that he can play there if need be.

4. Ahead of the game, Sir Alex Ferguson blamed himself for Wayne Rooney's scoring woes, and that continued against Villa, as he definitely did not look his normal menacing self. There were definitely some moments of brilliance from him, but those were few and far between - and he looks completely out of his norm up front. Some of his passes, including a perfectly-placed 60-yarder, were very good, but the simple pass, in particular the hesitant pass to Danny Welbeck, should have been better from him.

5. Despite losing a couple of their stars this summer, Villa still has two attacking threats, Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor who need to be watched and defended straight from the opening kick off to the final whistle - and Nemanja Vidic and Chris Smalling did just that. The way that these two had the right side of the defense on lock down was nothing short of impressive.