Aston Villa vs Manchester City

Saturday’s Premier League action kicks off at Villa Park with a handsomely-looking encounter between Aston Villa and Manchester City.

Aston Villa’s mini-revival, marked by three straight victories, including two in the Premier League, came to a sudden halt last weekend with a 2-1 loss to Nottingham Forest, leaving them three points adrift of the top four ahead of this round. Back to home turf, where they’ve only lost one league game this season (W4, D3), Unai Emery’s men will be out to post a third consecutive top-flight triumph in Birmingham for the first time since last December. Breaking the deadlock may not necessarily mean a win for the home side, considering they’ve lost twice in seven league matches when scoring first this season (W4, D1, L2). But it would be a boost, nonetheless, as they bid to beat Man City in back-to-back home meetings in the Premier League for the first time since 1993.

On the other hand, Man City’s miserable form hit a new low last weekend as they conceded twice beyond the 85th minute in a heart-wrenching 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United, losing further ground on table-topping Liverpool. After four successive Premier League titles, Pep Guardiola must start considering a top-four finish the ultimate goal for this season, with the Citizens trailing fourth-placed Forest by a point after losing five of their last seven league outings (W1, D1). Bringing other competitions into the equation, Guardiola’s charges have only won once in 11 matches (D2, L8) – as many defeats as they had in their previous 106 fixtures combined! Furthermore, they’ve lost six of their last seven games on the road, highlighting the depth of the crisis.