Aston Villa v Manchester City Match Preview

Last 5 meetings:
MC 3-0 AV
MC 4-0 AV
AV 0-0 MC
MC 3-2 AV
AV 0-2 MC

11:30 NBCSN

So, the typical narrative here would be that Manchester City will wipe the floor with Villa. This season, however, has been anything but typical for City in that they've lost more games in 21 matches than they did in their previous two full seasons. All of those losses have come from decidely weaker opposition, such as Norwich or Wolverhampton Wanderers which did the double over them. It exposes City's problem of having a weak mentality. When things go awry from Pep Guardiola's masterplan, City is not very good at recovering. You can see this for yourself in my personal favorite episode of Amazon's All or Nothing documentary episode titled "Welcome to Hell". That's not to say that Manchester City is by any means a bad team. But, it does expose cracks in the armor of what has been a juggernaut for the previous two seasons.

What this game will come down to is Aston Villa's ability to stay organized at the back, to keep errors to a minimum, and for Jack Grealish to make some magic happen. They have the tools to stay a competetive Premier League side but their problems with finding consistency have left them just one point above the relegation zone on the league table. Villa will be facing an uphill battle but if last place Norwich can pull it off, so can Villa.

Rosy optimism for Villa aside, City are in a good position to regain second place today after Leicester City dropped points yesterday to Southampton. After battering Manchester United in the Carabao Cup the other day, Manchester City will want to continue this form to have any hope of catching up with Liverpool in the league table. Manchester City should come away with a comfortable win today. Key word: Should.

Prediction: MC 3-1 AV

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