At A Glance
Aston Villa welcome Premier League leaders Manchester City to Villa Park on Wednesday night.
The Villans are looking to bounce back after a 2-1 loss to Liverpool at Anfield last time out, a game in which Ollie Watkins was on target once again.
A win would see Dean Smith’s side climb back into the top ten and back up a 3-1 victory against Fulham in their last Villa Park outing.
Manchester City have the best away record in the league, picking up 36 points from 15 matches.
Pep Guardiola’s team are on a club record run of 16 consecutive away victories in all competitions and are unbeaten in 19 on the road.
However, the table toppers did suffer a 2-1 loss to Leeds United in their last league game before following it up with an FA Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Chelsea.
Standout Stats
Aston Villa have lost 11 of their last 13 Premier League meetings with Man City (W1 D1), with their only victory during this period coming in September 2013 (3-2).
Manchester City have won each of their last 14 Premier League games on Wednesdays, the longest winning run on a specific day other than Saturday in the competition’s history. Meanwhile, Aston Villa have lost all four of their Wednesday games this season.
Aston Villa have lost eight of their last 10 Premier League games against the league leaders, with those defeats coming by an aggregate score of 22-5. The exceptions in this run were a 1-0 win against Chelsea (March 2014) and a goalless draw with Man City (November 2015).
Aston Villa have picked up more points away from home (24) than they have at home (20) in the Premier League this season. The last full top-flight campaign where the Villans won fewer points at home than on the road was 2012-13 (20 home, 21 away).
Man City have won each of their last nine Premier League away games and could become the first team to win 10 in a row on the road in the competition on more than one occasion (won 11 in a row between May-December 2017).
Man City haven’t lost consecutive league games since December 2018. However, three of the Citizens’ four league defeats this season have been at the Etihad Stadium.
Man City striker Sergio Agüero has scored 10 goals in his last six starts against Aston Villa in all competitions, including a hat-trick in a 6-1 victory in this exact fixture last season.
Aston Villa top scorer Ollie Watkins has scored in his last two Premier League games – he’s yet to score in three in a row in the competition.
Man City striker Gabriel Jesus has scored 49 goals in 125 Premier League appearances, and could become just the second Brazilian to reach 50 in the competition after Roberto Firmino.
The Last Meeting
Aston Villa pushed Manchester City all the way before falling to two late goals in the Premier when the sides met in January.
Superb defensive work for 79 minutes was undone when Bernardo Silva thrashed a shot past Emiliano Martinez from the edge of the box.
Ilkay Gundogan added gloss to the scoreline with a stoppage-time penalty, but it was harsh on the valiant visitors.
Team News
Jack Grealish misses out once again for Villa, with Morgan Sanson and Trezeguet joining him on the sidelines.
For City, Kevin de Bruyne was injured on the weekend and will miss out, while Sergio Aguero has missed the last three games.
The Boss
“We have to work extremely hard to match them. They’re very good with and without the football. If you play in front of them, they’ll press you like many of the top teams do now. They’ve got players who are more than capable on the ball. I went to the FA Cup semi-final and I thought Chelsea were excellent against them, restricted them to a few chances and we have to do that as well. If you can do that, then with the ball you can create chances against them. It’s hard to do that but you can.”
Dean Smith
