Manchester City vs Aston Villa - Premier League

Manchester City vs Aston Villa
Premier League : Matchday 8
Date : 15. October 2011
Stadium : Etihad Stadium, Manchester

The 'noisy neighbours' of Manchester United will hope to continue their undefeated streak in Barclays Premier League when they face-off against Aston Villa at the newly named Etihad Stadium on Saturday. Although Roberto Mancini's squad have had a tough time in Europe, they have trotted to victory in most of their Premier League encounters, their free-scoring side finding the net with great aplomb. City's expensively assembled unit have amassed 19 points from 7 matches and trail league-leaders Manchester United by a single goal in the points table. Aston Villa too are yet to lose a Premier League game, but will be looking at better times ahead, having ended a run of 5 win-less games in a 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic at home before the international break. Goals from Gabriel Agbonlahor and Darren Bent propelled the villains up to 7th in the points chart.

The same fixture in the previous season had yielded a 4-0 result in favour of the Citizens, but Villa avenged that defeat a month later by outlasting their opponents 1-0 at Villa Park.

Manchester City : Goalkeeper Jo Hart will be protected by the pair of Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany at centre back. Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandr Kolarov will look to negate Villa's pace down the flanks by playing as fullbacks. Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure will anchor themselves in the centre of park to give cover for the adventurous attacking midfield trio of Nasri, Silva and Johnson. Edin Dzeko will be deployed as the target man.

Aston Villa : Summer signing Shay Given will man the posts with Ciaran Clark playing alongside Richard Dunne in the absence of James Collins. Alan Hutton will feature at rightback while Stephen Warnock will assume his position on the opposite flank. Midfield will contain the trio of Fabian Delph, Stilyan Petrov and Stephen Ireland while Barry Bannan, Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor will form the strike force.

Head to Head :
Last Meeting : 03.03.2011: Manchester City 3 - 0 Aston Villa
Wins Manchester City : 56
Wins Aston Villa : 47
Draws : 38

Possible Line-Ups :
Manchester City : Hart - Zabaleta, Lescott, Kompany, Kolarov, Barry, Toure, Johnson, Silva, Nasri, Dzeko.
Aston Villa : Given - Hutton, Dunne, Clark, Warnock, Delph, Petrov, Ireland, Bannan, Bent, Agbonlahor.

Betting tip/Prediction :
It appears to be City all the way on paper. The Eastlanders have maintained clean sheets in all three Premier League home games and are capable of repeating that again on Saturday. However, considering the threat posed by Bent and Agbonlahor, a goal for the visitors cannot be ruled out. City remain the firm favourites to claim all three points while the Villains will have to play out of their skins to unsettle their opponents in their own backyard.