Fletcher on the bench for United at Villa Park

Darren Fletcher was named on the bench as Manchester United looked to avoid suffering a hat-trick of Premier League defeats for the first time since December 2001 as they took on Aston Villa.

Fletcher has been absent for almost 12 months for treatment on a chronic bowel condition but is now available for the first time under David Moyes, who made four changes to the side that defeated Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday.

Danny Welbeck, who has not scored in the league since an opening-day win at Swansea, was preferred in attack against a Villa side also showing four changes to the team defeated at Fulham last weekend, including the return of Marc Albrighton for Andreas Weimann.

Aston Villa: Guzan, Lowton, Baker, Clark, Luna, El Ahmadi, Westwood, Sylla, Albrighton, Benteke, Agbonlahor.

Subs: Bacuna, Weimann, Steer, Bowery, Gardner, Tonev, Kozak.

Man Utd: De Gea, Rafael Da Silva, Jones, Evans, Evra, Valencia, Cleverley, Giggs, Januzaj, Rooney, Welbeck.

Subs: Ferdinand, Lindegaard, Young, Fabio Da Silva, Fletcher, Buttner, Zaha.

Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)