Alan Hansen’s Premier League Preview: Man City v Aston Villa

Manchester City take on Aston Villa in a massive game at Eastlands which is crucial to the race for fourth place. Martin O’Neill’s Villans have played their way back into the race with three successive wins and will now fancy their chances of upsetting City who have now lost two of their last four at home after previously being unbeaten at Eastlands. Villa have won their last three and with Tottenham and Man City set to play each other in midweek in their games in hand, they need to win again.

Aston Villa have been the nearly men so far this season, a controversial defeat in the Carling Cup final plus another controversial defeat in the FA Cup semi-final would have ended most clubs seasons. However, the spirit O’Neill and his players have shown in pulling themselves back into the race for 4th has to be admired. They have great momentum now and although they’re relying on other teams to do them a favour, at least they are now in with a shout.

Winning at Eastlands is not going to be easy, only Everton and Manchester United have achieved this feat but after away wins at Anfield and Old Trafford, you wouldn’t rule Villa out of doing the same. Especially when you consider that City will be without Shay Given in goal and likely to have on loan keeper Marton Fulop in the side. The Sunderland player has only won three of his thirteen appearances for the Black Cats this season and has not featured since a 7-2 thrashing at Chelsea back in January. That’s hardly the best preparation for a game of this magnitude but a lot will depend on the defenders in front of him as they’ll have to deal with lots of crosses into the box plus the pace of Gabriel Agbonlahor.

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Richard Dunne will be returning to the club where he performed so well and is sure to get a good reception from the Eastlands crowd. The Irishman has proven to be an excellent signing for Villa and his selection in the PFA Team of the season was a great achievement. Dunne is one of the formidable defensive barriers that City will need to get past and they won’t find it easy. Carlos Tevez will need to be at his elusive best to get any joy out of Dunne and James Collins but after going two games without scoring, you know the Argentinean will be up for the challenge. The home side are unlikely to get too much joy with crosses into the box so it will be up to them to cause problems with their pace and movement. Craig Bellamy will cause Carlos Cuellar problems if he is giving the right service while Adam Johnson faces a good contest with Stephen Warnock.

Villa may have the momentum but it is City who have enjoyed the better fortunes of the two teams when they’ve met in recent years. The Villans have only won two of their last 14 league encounters with the Citizens and they’ve lost nine. In fact, City have won more matches against Villa than any other team in the Premier League era (twelve wins). The Blues have also won six of the last seven home league meetings between the two and not conceded in the last two clashes. However, they will be facing a vibrant young team full of confidence and desire.

After picking up a point from the last two matches, Roberto Mancini’s side need a win to set them up nicely for the midweek match with Tottenham. However, despite the attacking players he has at his disposal, the Italian has opted for a very cautious approach in both matches with Manchester United and Arsenal. I expected a bit more of an attacking nature from City especially in the home derby where they didn’t really get into the faces of the Manchester United players with Paul Scholes literally given the freedom of the park. With so many good offensive players, I expected them to go for United’s throats but they didn’t attack with any real conviction.

It was a similar story at the Emirates where Arsenal were there for the taking with so many players out. By playing one up front, he allowed Arsenal to dominate the ball rather than pressing them high up the pitch and taking the game to them. If they don’t pressurise Villa they will struggle to break the away team down, so City can’t afford to let Villa settle and to organise themselves, as defensively there are few better teams in the Premier League.

Despite Villa’s form, I am backing City to return to winning ways with the full backing of the home crowd. City’s big players will need to perform but I just feel the added quality up front for Mancini’s team will just edge it as long as they show the right mentality by taking the game to Villa. In the last four weeks there have been three single £30,000 jackpot winners including a Liverpool fan, a Manchester United fan and a Nottingham Forest fan. With another estimated £30,000 jackpot to be won this weekend on Premier 10, who will you back?

Tags: Alan Hansen, Aston Villa, Football betting, Football Pools, Manchester City, online betting, Online pools, Premier 10, Premier League

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