Aston Villa host Manchester City this weekend at Villa Park, a stadium where Aston Villa have struggled to get results. Manchester City are high on confidence after a 4-1 victory over arch rivals Man. United. Aston Villa on the other hand, beat Norwich 1-0. Villa will hope to avoid a defeat because it may be the first time since 1943, which Villa lost their first three home games. They will have to try that without top scorer Christian Benteke who injured his hip last weekend. Man. City boss Pelligrini is keeping Champions League in mind and may rotate his squad a little, City will be playing against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
To give some optimism to Villa fans, the last time City played a Premier League game before a Champions League game, they struggled to beat Stoke City and in fact almost lost the game. But you can’t take away the depth and quality of the Man. City side.
Team News:
Aston Villa will be without Benteke and Westwood who have struggled with injuries since last week. However, Luna, Clark, Delph and Agbonlahor (who missed Villa’s League Cup game) are set to return to the starting 11. Jores Okore, N’Zogbia and Gardner are still out with long-term injuries.
Manchester City will be without key striker Aguero, he obtained an injury against United late into the game. David Silva will not be risked however maybe fit for Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Match Facts:
Manchester City have won six of their last seven Barclays Premier League encounters with Aston Villa.
Brad Guzan has had the most touches of any Villa player in two games this season (Arsenal & Norwich), something no other goalkeeper has done for a side even once in 2013-14.
Aston Villa have conceded nine goals from penalties since the start of last season; a joint-PL-high with Arsenal.
Along with bottom club Sunderland, Aston Villa are the only team yet to win a single point at home this season.
Man City have kept three clean sheets in their last four Premier League away games.
Predicted Lineups:
Guzan
Bacuna-Vlaar-Clark-Luna
El Ahmadi-Delph
Weimann-Helenius-Agbonlahor
Kozak
Negredo
Nasri-Jovetic-Navas
Fernandinho-Toure
Kolarov-Natasic-Kompany-Richards
Hart
Aston Villa 0-2 Man. City
Realistically, I don’t think we can beat City today. They won last weekend and that carry them on today. I’m not convinced by Kozak and I think we will struggle to score today. Obviously I hope I’m wrong, but Navas will destroy Luna today and Negredo will be difficult to keep quiet.
fuckin hell! well done lads!
offside? maybe but that in part makes up for the 2 pens last season at city.
I know our team is short… But come on. Lambert… Pathetic.
fuck me! 6 mins level :/ exctly the same as against Newcastle, really cant fucking concede so easily in a game where we were lucky to get back in it.
ffs :/
How many free headers are City going to get? Players like Dzeko should never be free.
To be fair, last time we played 3 at the back, we conceded 8. So this is relatively good.
Think I mentioned Bacuna being solid at free kicks. Wow. Well done. 2-2
Ha ha. You did call it! However you also mentioned El Ahmadi, whose free kick in the first half was dire!!
I have no idea how we managed to win that, but what a result!
WEIMANNNNNNNN 3-2!
Can’t believe I’m dreaming lol
Come on villa hold on
They actually held on!
OMG I cant stand it!
5 fuckin mins add on!
Apologies lads for what I’ve said fucking great, Oohah eat your heart out mate, first on the box tonight.
WHAT A WIN! What a fucking win!
What a team even vlaar did well. City will be kicking themselves but who cares
Oohah he’s captain, has to have don’t well, like you over the moon.
Vlaar was immense today. The defending in the last half was pretty damn good except a couple of lapses at corners but AWESOME!!
Agree best iv seen vlaar play we rode our luck big time but as iv always said it’s the result that matters. I did predictb1.1 today thou glad I was wrong. Oohah Ron vlaar lol
I thought Luna made some brilliant challenges on Navas in the dying minutes too. Amazing. Bacuna at RB, much better than Lowton in so many ways. I think we are all in shock haha especially as City dominated the game really. But not taking your chances is bad football and in that case we played great football because we didn’t muck around in front of goal today!
Love it mate, that’s what we need you being genuine in praise , thanks..
Lol say what you like about me I always give credit where it’s due. They really did well today and tbf city didn’t have that many clear cut chances. We somehow turned a potential 5.0 defeat into a 3.2 win lol
I’m not sure what to say. Epic defending and we took our chances. Really fantastic!
Can’t believe it foxy just seen live in pub and it’s disbelief in here lol
My heart rate was going nuts for the last 10 minutes. This can only make the team stronger can’t it. Like I said some epic defending. Soooo chuffed!
To be fair we never looked like we were hanging on in last ten. They had run out of ideas despite all their talent
Anyone going to whine this week? Probably but guess what.. Villa have now beaten Arsenal and Man City this season.. who else can say that? haha. If there is ANYONE on here that wouldn’t have been stoked with nine points from our first six games this season then get the hell off here and go cry because your team (MANC) lost tonight! VILLA VILLA VILLA!!!
great to beat city, I fuckin hate man city!
massive effort from the lads, baccuna is looking well decent for the RB spot hes had Redmond to deal with last week and man city this week and pops up with a beauty of a free kick.
awesome villa well done the lads.
nice to hear villa park in full voice that’ll be good for the lads 🙂
Huzzah! More poise on the ball today. Still some work to be done, but hats off to the villa boys.
What?! I went to walk the dog and come back to a 3-2 scoreline!? Maybe I should walk the dog durning every game?
Keep walking that dog 🙂
OOHAH – sod the dog, you see now what happens when make a positive prediction?!
Never have I be so glad to be proved wrong how did it happen im in shock lambert yourve earned some respect tonight from me and nm also why cant we play like that all the time thats what gets me frustrated
To be fair we didn’t play well we just took our few chances where they missed theirs. They Shoukd of been 4-5 up by the time we got our first bit I think took us for granted like they did at Cardiff and paid the price
I’ll hold up my hands and say I was somewhat harsh on Lambert after the midweek cup result but fair play to him and the lads today, they’ve done themselves proud. 2 wins on the spin in the league and no reason why we can’t go to Hull next week and make it 3. Hull are doing really well but considering the start we’ve had to the season and the points we’ve bagged we can go there on positive mood. Brilliant result today. Well done AVFC.
Agree I never realised city havnt won away this season yet. Can see why after today that djecko is dire lol
Sensational result today against the run of play. But who cares – 3 pts in the bag. The game reflects the whole PL time – in many ways outplayed, but we fought back, scored a lucky goal but kept going and in the end we get 3 pts. Its a rollercoaster era but today we can be proud of the boys.
Football is a game of self confidence and I am sure this win will give us a lot of. Hopefully Gabby will come back soon, so will Benteke. And then the real season starts with games against opponents we should get the right results.
Christian who lol. Maybe we will become a better team without him as we rely far to heavily on him. Btw what a free kick from bacuna if Ronaldo did that the London media would be creaming themselves for years lol.
First win without Benteke since he’s joined I believe I read/heard. So we did rely too heavily on him, reminds me much of Liverpool with Suarez, when he plays, they’re so reliant, when he doesn’t, other have to step up, much like Villa did today, despite being massively outplayed.
The Midlands take out both Manchester teams in the same weekend! Can’t believe that. And after six games we are ahead of Man U! Enjoy it! Have a few! And come back down to earth ready to take on Hull. Back this up and we will be in an excellent position.
Was thinking that excellent result for WBA moyes is already under pressure lol. Good to c midlands clubs do well against overhyped sky 4 teams lol. Bet motd will give us and WBA fuck all credit though lol
If Fergie thought McLeish good enough for the mighty Villa surely he’ll not hesitate a second in recommending him to take over from Moyes?
Lol no chance of that but can’t see moyes lasting long. Southampton are fourth ffs. Going to be a close league thus year but sky 4 Shoukd break away in next couple of months b
But will Man Utd be with them or will Liverpool or Tottenham be taking their place in the 4 this year?