(FOR THE OFFSIDE:) Match Preview: Manchester City v Aston Villa

March 4, 2009 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa 

Manchester City v Aston Villa
Premier League
City Of Manchester Stadium
Wednesday 4th March 2009, 7.45pm

man city sheik
Pic: Robbed!

Hi all, it’s Martin Banks here with today’s match preview. Some of you may remember me from my stint here at the Offside, so a big hello to those who do. I’m now with a Villa-only blog, but for today’s preview me and Chris (Chris and I to the teachers out there!) have decided to guest on each  other’s in a little bit of blog-swapping action. It’s a little bit like wife swapping with a little less complications but not quite as much fun. (To check Chris’s match preview click here)

Premier League Form Guide

Aston Villa: WWDWLD

With Arsenal winning last night (who didn’t see that coming?!) Villa are now far from safe in the top four unless we get back to winning ways. This game has taken on even more importance thanks to our final-minutes deterioration against Stoke. Villa need to recover from this dip in form which has seen us not win a single game in 5, in all competitions. We’ve had our fair share of bad press and criticism, now it’s time to answer it with a win.
Man City: WLWLDL

At the beginning of the season, suddenly Man City became the richest club in the world. I blinked and missed it! So they went on a bit of a spree to bring in some HUGE players. It all hinged on the Kaka deal, but that didn’t go through so they resorted to buying the kind of players they can attract easily. Which is by no means bad, just not Kaka standard.  As the fuss died down over Kaka, it all kicked off over Mark Hughes’s position as Man City struggled in the bottom half of the league. But a good run has got them to mid table and eased the pressure. They remain very inconsistent though so a prediction is hard to make until you see which Man City is out tonight.

Team News

Villa are likely to field pretty much the same team as against Stoke, but Carew will likely start as MON would be a hypocrit to Capello if he played Heskey. It would be nice to see him bring Shorey in, switch Young to right back and maybe drop Knight for Cuellar, but O’Neill is stuck in his ways and unlikely to make many changes.

There’s also a large part of me that wants to see Gabby benched, in place of Delfouneso, as he has missed far too many easy chances of late and I’d love to see what the Fonz is capable of with a start in a full strength team.

It’ll be hard work for Barry and Petrov tonight but it’s those 2 who need to have a good game, to get us in control of the game

For Man City, the big news is that Bellamy and Robinho will not be fit to play tonight, which is great news for us. Bellamy was West Ham’s only threat earlier in the season, and with a better team around him, he could’ve potentially caused us problems tonight. Robinho could also have been a major threat as neither Davies nor Knight are good for pace.

Why Man City away is a must-win

Because we can now feel Arsenal’s breath on the back of our necks. If we lose then we’re within one more bad result of going 5th. We’ve worked too hard to throw it all away at the end, so tonight is of massive importance.

As said, it’s a hard one to predict but I’m going ot plump for a 2-1 Villa win.


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