Coming off the back of a FA Cup Semi-Final win and with a massively in-form Christian Benteke and with Man City in unpredictable form with somewhat of a squad distancing away from their current manager – their arguably couldn’t be a worse time to play Villa from a Manchester City perspective.
Although comfortably winning at home last week against a low on form and confidence West Ham side, it seems that this shade of Claret and Blue could pose a lot more problems. Jack Grealish’s monster performance against Liverpool more or less earns him a starting 11 place, despite the smear from certain publications this week and also the aggressive force in midfield Carlos Sanchez is back from suspension which could see him included in the starting 11 also, come the late kick off.
Manchester City squad seems at full strength even with David Silva being declared fit after his injury scare against West Ham, what maybe the problem is what team can perform for Manchester City. For the likes of Joe Hart and Aguero, two of the most consistent players under Pellegrini but for the latter’s injury record it seems like they’ll start hoping to both make differences at both ends of the pitch but City’s problems seem to lie in the positions between those two players, with the once formidable force of Yaya Toure becoming a lot less influential this season than the last few and Vincent Kompany having trouble with finding a solid vein of form – these are all concerning problems for everyone to do with City and they can only hope that the right mentality and team turns up at the Etihad on Saturday.
From a Villa perspective, not a lot can really go wrong. By the bookies’ odds we are expected to get crushed with City having such a solid team in comparison but Tim Sherwood has been proven this team is anything put what the papers believe Villa are. Vlaar, reenergised since the appointment of Sherwood, is looking to prove his worth for a new contract to Villa fans who would like to see him gone on a free and the likes of Ashley Westwood also, who have been linked with the Villa Park exit this summer as Sherwood attempts to reorganise the squad.
Sherwood will look to take advantage of City’s insecurity in not being able to perform consistently with a high tempo game and really bring the game to City, while from the view of the neutral – City have been too questioning and nervous in themselves when playing, which is a strange mentality to be in when you’re defending your title. Two obvious people can change the game for both sides, depending on how Aguero and Silva play at the weekend will depend on how the result goes for both sides. From a Villa perspective it is key that they control the midfield in a similar way to how they did against Liverpool, so that the likes of David Silva can’t be effective and give our defence too much issue; evidence of why isn’t really needed after seeing how easy it was for Coutinho to waltz through Okore and Vlaar at Wembley.
In true optimistic manner, I’m going to go for a 1-0 Villa. Sometimes the mentality of a team is the difference between winning and losing, and we definitely have more of that at the moment.
