Villa – Man City; Yet another tough one. I’d take a point.

Man City are a very good team, regardless of who they put out on the pitch.
That’s the bleeding obvious out of the way and I suppose we should expect another spanking, similar to what should have happened against Leicester.

Fortunately, I called that game totally wrong, I suspect along with the vast majority of us and football did what it always has done, in saying no result is guaranteed.
Which is the total beauty of the game that sets it apart for me.

So while it would be fair to say we should be beaten fairly easily, I think if we set up right we can frustrate Citeh, just as we did Leicester.

Straight into squad news and little has changed.
Davis is still a couple of weeks away and all our long term injuries are just that; out for ages.

The interesting one is Jonathan Kodjia, who apparently hasn’t trained because of whatever illness (probably manflu) affected him on Wednesday.
I personally think that’s total rubbish and my money says he’s off, which is a massive indication of what Dean Smith thinks of him. Even if Smith doesn’t rate him, it says it all that he’d rather play without a striker than play Kodjia, particularly in our current position.
I suppose of course that Kodjia might genuinely be ill and there is a lot of it about, where I’ve personally seen very hardened grafters taking time off over the last couple of weeks.
As some of you know, I love a conspiracy theory and it just seems all too convenient to be ill right now.

As for Citeh, Kevin De Bruyne is fit after coming off against Utd midweek.
Aymeric Laporte is close, but not ready, same as Leroy Sane.

Will Drinkwater start?
I’d definitely think so as he has the ability to offer more than Hourihane and certainly Lansbury, in his overall game.

What does Pep think?

“It’s a historic club with a fantastic stadium. They changed their set-up, with five at the back rather than four at the back.

“Unfortunately, they had a big injury in the last week. We’ll try to maintain the dynamic we have.”

Not much about the game itself, then.
But the five at the back comment pleased me, as it backs up what I keep saying, in that we don’t play 3.
No doubt I’m just being pedantic, as we all saw how we played midweek, but it just bugs me.

And if we stick with the five, I suspect we might be able to get something out of the game.
Going gung-ho is definitely not the way to go, against a side like Man City, who will punish you on the counter.

I’m cautiously going for a 1-1.
Given that this should be a shoe-in on paper for Citeh, I’d definitely take that.
If we can nick one and hold them off, I’d be ecstatic.
But I think that’s pushing it.

UTV!