Champions League
Conference League
Premier League
Published on Dec, 21 2024
Aston Villa host Manchester City when seventh in the English Premier League table meets fifth on Saturday. Pep Guardiola's visitors are struggling to get their title defense back on track while Unai Emery's hosts have been erratic of late. Both sides come into this one off the back of losses with Villa going down to Nottingham Forest and City losing to bitter rivals Manchester United.
UEFA Champions League action has proved testing for the Villans with the Birmingham outfit struggling to replicate their best EPL form. Despite four straight losses away from home, they are unbeaten in seven Premier League games at Villa Park. A 1-0 win last season aided Villa's push to finish fourth and qualify for the UCL and another success here could mean consecutive home wins over City for the first time since 1993.
City have now lost two of their last three EPL games that they have led in at half time while they also trail Villa by five points in the Champions League despite being two points ahead in the domestic standings ahead of this one. Ageing players, misfiring attackers and absent defenders have all contributed to their current form which has raised major question marks these past few months.
Villa missed the chance to pull clear of Forest last week and went down to a late goal at the City Ground despite Jhon Duran and Emi Martinez's best efforts. That followed three straight wins over Brentford, Southampton and RB Leipzig, so the Villans come into this one seventh in the standings and two points behind City, but on the verge of the Champions League knockout rounds. Four wins from seven EPL games is a worry, but not as much of a concern as City's recent drop in form which included a late capitulation to United to stretch their barren run to eight losses from 11. That is nine points off the pace being set by Liverpool with the Reds having a game in hand.
Villa: Jhon Duran will hope to start ahead of Ollie Watkins while Leon Bailey could return for this one. Tyrone Mings is available for selection after illness but Jacob Ramsey is still unavailable for Emery's men.
Possible Villa XI: Martinez; Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Digne; Kamara, Tielemans; Cash, Rogers, McGinn; Watkins.
City: Mateo Kovacic and John Stones were back against United although Rodri, Oscar Bobb Nathan Ake are all out. Manuel Akanji could return while Rico Lewis is back from suspension. Jack Grealish will hope to feature ahead of Jeremy Doku against his former club.
Possible City XI: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Gvardiol, Lewis; Kovacic; Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Doku; Haaland.
This one is a meeting between two beatable sides so confidence will not be too high and perhaps a score draw makes the most sense for all concerned. Pick: Villa 1, City 1.
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