Citizens to devour another one
A TRIP to Aston Villa today is Manchester City’s assignment and it could well end up like their last three fixtures – a one-sided match.
City are on fire at the moment and travel to Villa Park having scored 12 goals in the last three outings, with Viktoria Plzen (3-0), Manchester United (4-1) and Wigan (5-0) thumped in the Champions League, English Premier League and League Cup respectively.
With this in mind, Paul Lambert and his Villans must be quaking in their boots at the thought of Manuel Pellegrini leading out his potent Citizens team today.
In his post-match interview after the demolition of Man United last weekend, Pellegrini spoke fondly of how they vanquished Newcastle on the opening day of the season and how they tore apart Man United. Of course, that was before he fielded a second string side that did the same to Wigan in midweek.
Pellegrini’s take on their performances was not conceited but rather just stating the facts. The players are in fine fettle right now, and unless Villa can somehow come up with a plan to stall the advances of the lethal front six, they risk being humiliated like Man United and Wigan were last week.
Given that the Citizens will be welcoming European champions Bayern Munich to the Etihad next week in a mouth-watering Champions League tie, Pellegrini is unlikely to field his strongest line-up at Villa, but will almost certainly make more than a few changes to the starting XI that thumped Wigan. Only one player – Fernandinho – was in that side from the team that so easily and deservedly put Man United to shame.
Thus, the likes of Sergio Aquero, Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany and Joe Hart should be back in action today.
The inspirational midfielder David Silva is still troubled by a thigh problem and will not be risked at Villa, although he could return for the Bayern game.
To add to their woes, Villa will be without their top striker Christian Benteke, who is ruled out with an injury picked up in their win at Norwich last weekend. That was their first victory since their opening win against Arsenal. But then they lostbadly to Tottenhamin the League Cup, going down 4-0 on Wednesday.
But even if the Belgian Benteke is available, it would be difficult to suggest that this City side could not go to Villa Park and return with the three points. Indeed, it might yet end up as another one-sided game with the home side left dead and buried. Shaun Orange thinks City will win this one by at least a couple of goals and without Villa scoring, despite being at home.