Barclays Premier League
Monday 5th October
Aston Villa v Manchester City
Live on ESPN
Kick Off 8pm
Villa suffered only their second defeat of the season last weekend at Blackburn and they will be looking to bounce back in the same fashion they did after their first loss. After losing to Wigan on the first day of the season, Villa’s chances were widely written off in their following game against Liverpool, but an inspired performance helped Villa take a rare 3 points away from Anfield. They might have the advantage of being at home this time around but Villa have quite a task on their hands if they want to stop a rampant City. The Liverpool win proved to be a springboard for a spurt up the table with Villa winning their next 3 league matches before the Blackburn setback. Villa sit nicely in 8th on 12 points and have the top 6 firmly in their sights and Martin O’Neill has the comfort of having no fresh injury worries. Steve Sidwell has resumed training after a thigh problem kept him out for two matches but he’s unlikely to be rushed back into the side.
After the unfortunate 3-2 loss to bitter rivals Man Utd which ended their perfect start to the season, the Citizens returned to winning ways with a comfortable 3-1 home win over luckless West Ham last Monday night. Emmanual Adebayor will return after a 3 match ban, with to the City frontman escaping a further ban for his exuberant celebrations in front of Arsenal fans last month, however he was slapped with suspended two match ban and a £25,000 fine. Roque Santa Cruz made a substitute appearance in the win over West Ham and should start on the bench again. Steven Ireland has been declared fit following a recent sickness bug and could figure. A win for City will put them back into 3rd place, and with a strikeforce of Adebayor, Tevez and a resurgent Craig Bellamy, nothing else will do for City.
After a busy midweek of European action for many clubs, Villa and Man City haven’t had any such distractions and go into this game fresh. This match also sees a couple of former players returning to their old club’s with Gareth Barry returning to Villa Park after being a player there for 12 years. Former Man City captain Richard Dunne recently found himself surplus to requirements at Eastlands and was snapped up by Villa for £6m on transfer deadline day. Emmanuelle Adebayor will look to continue his goal-a-game habit but he’ll have to do it against a Villa side that have only let in an impressive 5 goals all season. Villa know what to expect from City and they have already shown they can live with the big boys, so I’m predicting a share of the spoils here.
4/10 Stakes on the draw 3.4 with Stan James. Click here to place your bet!