It’s stalemate all round at the top: Aston Villa 0, Manchester United 0

THE fixture list has conspired against Manchester United more than anything in the opening to the Premier League campaign.

The Reds have already played all their main rivals away from home as Saturday’s visit to Aston Villa followed visits to Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal.

And with all these teams still to play at Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson won’t be overly concerned that United are eight points behind Chelsea and Liverpool having played one less match.

While Saturday may be viewed as two points dropped, United did not lose further ground in the title race by virtue of the fact that Chelsea and Liverpool were held at home by Newcastle and Fulham respectively.

And the way in which teams are taking points off each other - Chelsea alone have already dropped nine at home - it promises to be an enthralling title race.

It was a rare occasion on Saturday when all of the so-called ‘Big Four’ failed to find the net on the same afternoon.

In United’s case, this was the first blank they had fired in 37 Premier League matches.

It was also a rarity for the Reds not to triumph at Villa Park where they had won on each of their last 11 visits - two of those in FA Cup semi-finals.

United at least had the satisfaction of extending their unbeaten Premier League run to 26 matches against Martin O’Neill’s side.

The only moment of controversy came in the second half when Villa were convinced they ought to have been awarded a penalty when Nemanja Vidic pulled back Gabriel Agbonlahor by his shorts.

Replays suggested the contact was initially made outside the penalty area, though both players crashed to the ground inside the box.

O’Neill felt referee Chris Hoy’s assistant could have intervened as he declared: “It was a big decision and they got it wrong between them.

“I don’t really need to see the replay of it as it’s a foul and a major decision in the game.

“I think the referee thought about the consequences of it, He (Vidic) is the last man and it’s a sending-off offence.”

Ferguson disagreed, saying: “He clearly got the ball, he was goalside of the player and Agbonlahor was always going to find it difficult to go around him.”

Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, ruled out of England’s friendly against Germany through injury, returned to the side but Dimitar Berbatov was ruled out with a hamstring injury sustained on international duty.

United had two clear-cut chances in the opening half, Cristiano Ronaldo’s 25-yard drive beaten away by keeper Brad Friedel while Ji-Sung Park found himself through on goal only to be denied by a splendid saving tackle.

The second-half produced little more incident as Young’s chip, destined for the top corner, was turned away by Edwin van der Sar.

But the best chance of breaking the deadlock fell to Rooney who, after being released by Michael Carrick, ballooned his shot into the crowd.

Rooney, who could not stop scoring at the start of the season, has been stuck on 99 career goals for the past month.