Manchester United-Aston Villa Preview

(AP) -- LONDON (SE) - Aston Villa welcome back their former winger Ashley Young when Manchester United visit Villa Park on Saturday evening.

Young left for United in the summer for an undisclosed fee - reported to be in the region of 20 million pounds - but his former team-mate and left-sided colleague Stephen Warnock is confident that the England international midfielder will get a warm reception from the fans of his former club.

"I think Ashley will go down as a modern day great for Villa," said Warnock. "I wouldn't expect anything less than a good reception for Ashley from our fans.

"He was a great servant to the club but it's not often the Premier League champions and Champions League runners-up want to sign you. Ashley has aspirations to be a top, top player and he has that ability to be one of the best in Europe. I don't think fans can begrudge him that.

"Every time he pulled on a shirt for Villa he was fantastic and put in 110 per cent. As a fan, that's all you can ask from the players who play for you. And I enjoyed having him in front of me. I had him playing in front of me for a few years. I used to just give him the ball and then watch him. I was fortunate to play with him and watch what he could do with the ball.

"With the likes of Nani and Ashley it's their unpredictably and dealing with that. They can go inside and they can go outside. They can play with both feet. They are both fantastic footballers. It will be a tough challenge and we'll need to be on the top of our game to try and keep them quiet."

Manchester United lie second in the Premier League, but will be looking to bounce back from an embarrassing League Cup exit to Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening.

"I apologise to our fans because that was not a United performance," said manager Sir Alex Ferguson in his post-match press conference. "I don't want to take anything away from Crystal Palace because it was a mammoth effort from them. Every one of their players worked their socks off to try to get to the semi-final. But their winning goal was offside and we are not getting any luck from linesmen right now."

Villa have doubts over the fitness of Stiliyan Petrov (hamstring) and Eric Lichaj (thigh), while United have concerns over Danny Welbeck. Anderson (knee), Michael Owen (thigh), Tom Cleverley (ankle) and Bebe (knee) are all out.

Aston Villa have lost just one of their last ten Premier League games at home, but have won none of last 15 against United at Villa Park - winning just one of the last 31 top-flight meetings with the Red Devils. Nemanja Vidic scored in both matches against Villa last season, while United are unbeaten in their last seven on the road.

Updated December 1, 2011