Manchester City v Aston Villa Preview

taken from: bleacherreport.com

Manchester City come into their game after their most recent comeback against Tottenham while Aston Villa just recently was on the end of a comeback victory from Manchester United. Nonetheless, City's performances have not yet reached the peak of last season while Villa has seen a pick up in their results after winning two on the trot before last week. Indeed, Villa's performances last weekend would have warranted them a win were it not for the heroics of one Javier Hernandez.

While wins over Swindon and Sunderland are not results to be forever saved in the record books, they are a good morale booster to the young Villa team. With youth comes a lack of fear and more enthusiasm but those can be easily overthrown with a couple of bad results as they did in the early stages of the season. However, last week's performance against Manchester United seems to suggest that the confidence is back. Two goal hero Weimann has already stated that the team is not afraid of City and this fearlessness will serve them well in games such as this where they are widely expected to lose. Why they are underdogs in games is because their first team squad is just not filled with that much quality. Their most problematic spot is the left back position, where Stevens and Lichaj have both filled in. Stevens is inexperienced and do not really provide an attacking dimension to the team while Lichaj is defensively susceptible. Whoever plays in that position today will be well and truly tested by City's right winger, possibly David Silva. Speaking of Silva, his return to action can only be a boost for City, who has of course missed his creative spark that was shown fully when he delicately chipped the ball up for Dzeko to fire in the winner last weekend.

It is always interesting to guess Mancini's actions. Last week, he fielded two left backs Kolarov and Clichy on the left flank to counter the pace of Walker and Lennon. Together with that, he always played Yaya Toure and Barry very deep initially, altogether making for a very defensive approach before going more attacking later in the game. This game, he should probably be less defensive and play a more open and attacking style. This might mean a return to the starting line up for Dzeko, whose winning goals this season have made it almost impossible to ignore him. This will allow Mancini to play Tevez behind the front two of Aguero and Dzeko and there is reason to suspect that Tevez will excel there as he has been the City player with the most key passes and assists this season. Whether Balotelli will be restored to the squad is another matter altogether. Mancini has put on record that Balotelli had been dropped last weekend due to his attitude issues in training and it is hard to imagine that he will work hard enough to get into contention this week. A bigger problem for Mancini is that of his goalkeeper, Joe Hart. After his mistake allowed Caulker to score last weekend, he followed that up with a horror show against Sweden and was directly responsible for at least two of Ibrahimovic's goals. By the way, the last one must be a real contender for next year's goal of the season. Anyway, for Joe Hart's situation, any mistakes that a goalkeeper make is usually costly and Mancini might be forced to take some drastic actions if his form deteriorate. Lucky for him, there is a more than capable deputy in the form of Costel Pantilimon whom I believe will become world class soon if given the opportunity to play.

Predictions:
Even though Villa Talent should triumph in this match but I expect City's slow start to games to continue this match. City to win from behind is available at odds of 6/1. A repeat of last week's scoreline of 3-2 looks very possible too though the odds are not too good for that. What interests me more is the 8/1 on offer for Villa to score in both hard, a not very distinct possibility given City's defensive frailties.