Manchester City welcome Aston Villa to the Etihad Stadium as the Citizens look to continue their title charge.
Whilst looking to cut their six point gap to leaders – Liverpool, City could also find themselves looking to climb back to second if Leicester beats Southampton on Friday Night.
Villa meanwhile will enter the top ten if they can take a shock victory over the reigning champions.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesRodri is ruled out for Manchester City with a hamstring injury suffered during their midweek home win over Atalanta in the Champions League.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (knee) is also sidelined after initially missing their league win over Palace last weekend with illness.
Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane are both long-term absentees with knee injuries.
Aston Villa meanwhile has a near full squad available as Jota is their only absentee as he recovers from hernia surgery.
Form
Manchester City have taken nine points from their last five league games but lost their last home outing to Wolves, although they did take victory on home turf in midweek against Atalanta in the Champions League.
Aston Villa are unbeaten in four of their last five league matches and have scored in their last five matches across all competitions, although they have conceded in each of those five outings.
Stat Attack
- Manchester City are unbeaten in eight of their last nine meetings with Aston Villa in all competitions (W7, D1, L1).
- Man City have won two of their last three home games against Villa by 4-0 results.
- Just four of City’s last starting eleven against Villa in March 2016 are still with the club.
- City’s Sergio Aguero and John McGinn of Villa have both produced 30 shots this season, although 40% of McGinn’s shots were on target in comparison to 30% of Aguero’s.
- Villa have made a league high 54 blocks this season and is the only team who have made 50+ blocks after nine games this season.
Prediction
City will be favourites but I am concerned about their inconsistency in the past month, which is highlighted by the number of times in which they have conceded in a non City like manner.
Villa meanwhile seem to have built up some form and their squad seem to have finally clicked, although their defence needs to be much improved to handle the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero.
I can therefore see a tighter battle than many might expect but if they’re on top form, Man City should come through this with a comfortable win.
Prediction: Manchester City 3-1 Aston Villa
Result: Manchester City 3-0 Aston Villa