“It’s been a long December,” as Counting Crows would say, for Aston Villa and January is not off to a good start either. Aside from the 5-0 EFL Cup throttling of Liverpool’s youth team, AVFC have just two victories (Norwich City, Burnley) over that period of time.
Now Dean Smith‘s side welcomes in reigning domestic treble holders Manchester City, who can certainly run up the score with the best of them, when motivated, and on their game. Of course, City have had some head scratching results (Norwich City) this season too, so anything can happen. It’s not good for the hosts that they are so injury riddled right now while City is starting to get fitter.
Keinan Davis (hamstring), Jed Steer (achilles) and John McGinn (foot) are long term injury absentees while Neil Heaton and Wesley are both out for the season with knee injuries.
Additionally Jonathan Kodjia is a doubt due to an illness while Matt Targett is back in action after a hamstring injury. This could also mark Villans debut for new loanee and Chelsea exile Danny Drinkwater.
Flipping over to the visitors, goalkeeper Ederson will feature for the first time since Dec. 27 having now finished serving his suspension. There are no new fresh injury concerns for Pep Guardiola’s men, but Leroy Sane remains out long term.
The other long term injury absentee, Aymeric Laporte, moves closer to a return as he’ll resume full training in the upcoming week.
Manchester City at Aston Villa FYIs
Manchester City Starting XI Prediction: go to this link
Kickoff: Villa Park, January 12, 4:30pm
Referee: Jon Moss
Form Guide: Manchester City- WWLWW Aston Villa- WLWLL
Google Result Probability: Manchester City win 82%, Draw 11%, Aston Villa win 7%
Odds: Manchester City win 1/5, Draw 15/2, Aston Villa win 14/1
Key stat: Manchester City have beaten Aston Villa by a combined score of 11-0 across all competitions in the last three meetings.
Prediction: Manchester City 4, Aston Villa 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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