Hotels for Manchester United v Aston Villa

Saturday afternoon fixtures like this one still draw the biggest crowds of the football week, with fans arriving hours early to fill the pubs around the ground. A 3pm kick-off means a full matchday build-up: the walk in, the programme sellers, the noise as the teams come out. Both clubs have history and recent rivalry to bring into this one, so expect a proper atmosphere rather than a routine league day. It's the kind of game that shapes the mood of the whole weekend for travelling supporters.

Manchester United began in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR, a team formed by railway workers at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Newton Heath depot, and only became Manchester United, in red, in 1902 — the change behind today's Red Devils nickname. The club's history holds both tragedy and triumph: eight players died in the 1958 Munich air disaster, and manager Matt Busby, badly injured himself, rebuilt the team into European champions a decade later, in 1968.

United have since added two more European Cups, under Alex Ferguson in 1999 and 2008, and hold the English record of 20 league titles, a mark shared with Liverpool.

Manchester United's 'Theatre of Dreams' is one of the most famous football grounds on earth and England's largest club stadium, staging Premier League and European nights in the Trafford district southwest of the city centre. The immediate area is more industrial than picturesque, but Salford Quays and MediaCity, with their bars and waterfront restaurants, sit close by.

Metrolink trams and nearby rail link straight into central Manchester. An overnight stay lets you savour the occasion and dodge the matchday transport crush.