Manchester United finally registered a victory as they grabbed all three points in a hard fought match against Aston Villa on Sunday.

With Liverpool winning their match on Saturday, the pressure was on United to deliver the goods and the defending champions looked to have put behind a string of disappointing performance to start the match strongly.

However it was Villa who went close to breaking the deadlock early in the game when John Carew's header was cleared off the line by Darren Fletcher who had some assistance from the post.

The hosts took the lead in the 14th minute when a poor back pass from James Milner was picked up by Brad Friedel and Cristiano Ronaldo made no mistake from the resultant free kick which was taken just 12 yards away from the goal.

Villa stepped up the pressure and were rewarded in the 30th minute when Carew headed home Gareth Barry's cross from the right flank. United looked in danger of slumping to a third straight defeat when Villa took the lead 13 minutes into the second half when a quick counterattack found Carew clear on the left flank and his cross was headed home by Gabriel Agbonlahor.

United looked to have snatched a point 10 minutes from the final whistle when Ronaldo's low shot rolled away from Friedel and into the net. There was some late drama left in injury time when 17-year old Federico Macheda superbly controlled a pass from Ryan Giggs before curling the ball past the Villa keeper to snatch all three points for his side.