Aston Villa vs Manchester City Preview

Saturday’s early kick-off in the Premier league sees a patchy Aston Villa take on a flailing Manchester City side that has won just one game in their last 10.

Both will likely have spent the week trying to recover from demoralising late defeats last weekend. Aston Villa fell to Nottingham Forest thanks to two goals in the final six minutes, while Manchester City continued their scarcely believable downward spiral with a shock 2-1 defeat at home to rivals Man United, despite leading in the 88th minute.

With both sides currently in something of a rut, both managers will be stressing the importance of this game, seeing it as an opportunity to win against a similarly vulnerable team, which could help get their respective seasons back on track.

As a crucial game in the top half of the table approaches, here is everything you need to know ahead of kick-off.

Key Statistics

• Aston Villa have won 2 of their last eight games, and have kept just one clean sheet in that time.
• Despite their poor recent form, goalkeeper Emi Martinez was awarded the title of FIFA Men’s best Goalkeeper this week.
• Man City have been on an equally rotten run, winning one of their last 10 in all competitions, this being a 3-0 victory over Nottingham in early December.
• City lost the away fixture to Aston Villa last season 1-0, and haven’t won at Villa Park since 2021.

Aston Villa Preview

Aston Villa Predicted Lineup (4-2-3-1): Emiliano Martinez (GK); Lucas Digne, Pau Torres, Diego Carlos, Ezri Konsa; Youri Tielemans, John McGinn; Ian Maatsen, Ross Barkley, Morgan Rodgers; Ollie Watkins.

At the start of the christmas period, it seemed as if villa had got their act together. Winning three on the bounce, and looking more solid than they had in a long time, it seemed Unai Emery had rediscovered the form which saw him guide them to 4th in the league last season, qualifying for the Champions League.

However, the defeat to Nottingham Forest once again saw Villa fall to familiar short-comings, particularly in front of goal. Jhon Durans’ header may have been superb, but Villa had much easier chances that should have put the game beyond doubt.

Now though, against a down-on-their-luck Manchester City, they have a chance to take advantage of a side that is having almost identical struggles. If they can win the ‘battle of the underperformers’, they would move above Manchester City in the league, and suddenly find themselves back in the Champions league discussion despite their shortcomings.

Manchester City Preview

Manchester City Predicted Lineup (3-2-4-1): Ederson (GK); Josko Gvardiol, Ruben Dias, John Stones; Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan; Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva; Erling Haaland.

Where to start with Manchester City? Their unprecedented collapse has seen them become the major talking point in European football, predominantly because no one knows why.

Rodri is missing, but Pep Guardiola had plenty of success before the Spaniards arrival, so that's not it. Members of the squad may be aging, but once again, Pep has dealt with that before, and there is more than enough young blood in the squad to keep things competitive.

The best solution I can find is that managers are finally figuring out the Guardiola code. The number of managers that have maintained top flight success throughout their careers can be counted on one hand, and even for an individual as tactically acute as Guardiola, patterns can be extracted from the multitude of beatings they have dished out to opponents of the past.

Perhaps City needs a major change, something radical, in order to remain in the title race. At the moment, they are virtually out of the discussion, but in previous years they have strung together remarkable runs of form to force themselves into the discussion come the end of the season. Perhaps Pep needs to depart from the status quo in order for that to happen again this year.

Aston Villa vs Manchester City Head to Head

Last five meetings:

• 03/04/2024: City 4-1 Aston Villa.
• 06/12/2023: Aston Villa 1-0 City.
• 12/02/2023: City 3-1 Aston Villa.
• 03/09/2022: Aston Villa 1-1 City.
• 22/05/2022: City 3-2 Aston Villa.

Aston Villa vs Manchester City Betting Tip

Despite their recent rotten luck, Manchester City's quality superior to virtually every team in the league. While both may be struggling to find their best, the sheer calibre of the names amongst the City squad should overwhelm the Villains eventually.

That is why we are backing City to win, and with there to be over 10.5 corners for good measure.

Aston Villa vs Manchester City Final Prediction

Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City

It will likely be a scrappy contest as both sides look to get over the nerves their recent form has instilled, but City will come out of their shell in the second half, controlling the game.