Manchester City vs Aston Villa

Manchester City’s faltering bid to defend the Premier League title continues this weekend as mid-table Aston Villa touch down at the Etihad Stadium.

Manchester City squandered a glorious chance to reduce the gap on runaway leaders Arsenal last weekend, with a 1-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur holding five points behind the ‘Gunners.’ With Mikel Arteta’s side also having a game in hand, the ‘Citizens’ cannot afford another slip-up against a Villa side they drew 1-1 against in the reverse fixture at Villa Park. Despite facing the risk of going winless in both seasonal league games against Villa for the first time since 2000/01, Man City will fall back on their outrageous 12-match H2H winning home streak in the Premier League. Despite having the league top-scorer Erlin Haaland (25) in their ranks, the hosts have only scored once in their last two top-flight outings, casting more doubt on their winning prospects.

In the meantime, visiting Aston Villa suffered an underwhelming 4-2 home defeat to out-of-sorts Leicester City last time out, ending a near-perfect four-game league start to the new calendar year (W3, D1). Amends for that result could be a strong motive as the ‘Lions’ hope to maintain a 100% win ratio in Premier League away matches under Unai Emery (W3). The Spaniard could become only the second Villa manager to win his first four top-flight games on the road. To achieve that feat, the visitors will have to defy an unwanted piece of history, having won only one of their last 29 away league fixtures against reigning top-flight holders (D6, L22). But Emery could turn Villa’s fortunes around after helping his side score in all eight Premier League games in charge.