Villa boss O’Neill: Petrov to be rested for Man Utd clash

The Villa chief said: “Stiliyan just doesn’t feel right at the minute so we will take him out of proceedings for a while. He has played on for us with a hamstring injury.

“It has not really gone but he feels it is plaguing him a bit and he has a bit of a back problem coming from it.

“He has been terrific in playing on for us but you have to analyse sometimes whether it is the right thing for the player or the right thing for us.

“If you are getting a performance, it’s a different matter but if the performance is not to the standard everyone would expect, that becomes a different issue.”