English Premier League: Preview – Manchester City versus Aston Villa
The match on Tuesday, 28 December at the City of Manchester Stadium will see third placed City lock horns with Aston Villa who are currently in the 15th position.
It was a very different story last year when the two teams met eight days before the end of the last season. Aston Villa were in the fourth position (level with Tottenham) and above the Sky Blues. City will be looking to build on their form of late, having
acquired three wins from four games.
A win for the Villans will see them rise seven points above the relegation three and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gerard-c14664 Houllier will be looking to take advantage of City’s dismal defensive record. The Sky Blues have managed to keep only a single clean sheet from their previous six
games in the English Premier League.
Houllier’s men will face a formidable task when they take on Roberto Mancini’s team as they have only two wins out of their previous twelve meetings with teams in the top flight. City have considerable reason to be confident ahead of this fixture as Aston
Villa do not have an impressive record in their away games, having tasted defeat in seven out of their previous nine away fixtures. The Villans have been unable to find the back of the net in three of their previous four games away from Villa Park.
Aston Villa have a game in hand ahead of the fixture at the City of Manchester Stadium, as the Villans have played eighteen games compared to City’s nineteen. Mancini’s men have acquired 35 points from their games this season, whereas Villa have managed
only 20. City have won twice as many fixtures than Villa so far in this campaign, with ten victories. Villa on the other hand have lost eight games this season, twice as many as City have. Both teams have drawn five matches so far in this campaign. Manchester
City have scored a stunning twenty eight goals compared to Villa’s twenty and have conceded sixteen as opposed to Villa’s thirty.
If City manage to defeat Villa in this match, the Sky Blues will fly to the top of the table, above local rivals Manchester United- a feat they have not managed since August 2007. Manchester United have fixture against Birmingham later on in the day, but
Mancini’s men will have closed the gap between themselves and the Red Devils with a much-anticipated win. The Sky Blue squad have undergone much disturbance with Tevez’s transfer request and other players voicing their desire to leave Eastlands, but with all
that off-the-field disorder behind them, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mancini-c23323 and his squad will be approaching Tuesday’s game with much confidence.
Manchester City are widely believed to emerge victorious in this fixture as the Eastlands team have been defeated by Villa only twice in their previous seventeen meetings in the League and Cup competitions.
Mancini’s men have managed to win this fixture seven out of eight times in the previous seasons when playing on City of Manchester Stadium turf. The fixture that they lost was in April 2007, when they had two goals scored against them.
Aston Villa will be looking towards Houllier’s personal record against City for confidence as the manager has been defeated by City only once in his last seven fixtures against the Sky Blues- the defeat being when he was in charge of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809 in May 2003.
City will be unlikely to lose as they have been defeated only once in their previous nine Premier League fixtures and have won five. Aston Villa may secure a point or three if they manage to score first against Manchester City, as the Sky Blues have a dismal
comeback record. The Eastlands team have not been able to secure a win this season when conceding the first goal, losing three out of the four fixtures and drawing the other in which they have gone one down first.
Manchester City will be pleased to have http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Emile-Heskey-c12468 may not play this fixture as the forward seemed to have twisted his ankle in the previous match
against Tottenham Hotspur.
Luke and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Stiliyan-Petrov-c34231 may be featured in the starting line-up for the first time in around two months.
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