Aston Villa v Manchester City
Sunday 13:30pm KO
Live on Sky Sports
Hello everyone, it’s been a while hasn’t it. That’s entirely my fault as I’ve been hugely busy trying to turn my little step six amateur side into a national giant…without the aid of Italian fraudsters, American conmen or former yoonited players.
Seven wins in the last eight has been a brilliant response from the lads following the 4-1 defeat at Spurs and to be honest I’ve barely seen a kick of it having missed four of the last five at the Etihad due to other football commitments. I watched the derby obviously and was at the Crystal Palace league cup tie which has probably left me in no way qualified to write this preview…but I’ll probably press on regardless.
It seems a long time ago already since the rags claimed a moral victory in the derby despite their first shot on target coming in the 89th minute of the game however what I took away from the game was that City tried to play their normal game in the first half found their front three two isolated and decided to play for a point the second half without ever getting out of first gear. Obviously there is context there and without the two best players in the league in Aguero and Silva it severely limited our attacking options and multiple other injuries as well as a clearly exhausted Yaya Toure I thought it was great growth from Pellegrini to settle for a point.
City followed that up with a patient performance at home to a poor Crystal Palace side where they waited for them to chase the game before hitting them on the counter and carving them open. It was a great night for Kelechi Iheanacho as he scored one and made one in a stunning performance however I thought Fernando had possibly his best performance in a City shirt.
Against Sevilla in the week I thought that the aforementioned performances were all geared up for this game as they chose to play Fernando and Fernandinho deep with the width of Sterling and Navas to allow Toure in the number 10 role. Speaking to barryconlonsbaldspot before the game I suggested that this is future planning and predicted De Bruyne on for Yaya as first change. Although it wasn’t the case I’m calling for mitigation due to the score-line but I’m carrying the belief that City are both maturing tactically to give them every chance of succeeding in the Champions League and planning for life without Toure. It’s been terrific stuff. Tuesday night in Sevilla felt like one of the most complete European performances to date and United must have been so bad that the national press even gave us some credit for it.
Aston Villa
Anyone who listens to the football ramble podcast will have not been surprised by the sacking of Tim Sherwood as it predicted by “Moorestradamus” the week he was appointed that he’d be “out by November.” Admittedly it was hardly the hardest prediction ever made (his previous prediction made was pronouncing Stuart Pearce out of a job at Forest by March whilst the were top of the league – it all ended in tears then too) and Sherwood hardly helped himself but he was given an almost impossible job to do.
Villa remind me of City circa 2005-07; a club with a reluctant owner with no money to put in, a dwindling fan base voting with its feet and in enough debt that no-one wishes to buy them. Now granted, it’s not that Randy Lerner doesn’t have the money to put it in but as he’s currently ploughing money into Jonny Manziel and the Cleveland Browns in the NFL for little return he can’t afford to do it here. Granted for all the reasons why overspending is bad in football Villa are now crippled by the excess of the Martin O’Neill era and whilst not in the kind of debt City were in when Thaskin took over any new owners are hampered by UEFA’s FFP restrictions. A new owner can no longer come in and give the team increased investment which has resulted in Villa scratching round for free agents in years past such as Kieran Richardson and Philipe Senderos.
This season they’ve spent £52 million as they build a squad around future City football masters side in Joleon Lescott, Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair (the former two potentially injured on Sunday).
Whilst Villa have been able to spend big money on Idrissa Gueye (£9m from Lille), Jordan Ayew (£9 from Lorient), Jordan Veretout (£7m from Nantes) and Adam Traore (£7m from Barcelona) it’s come at the expense of selling their best player Christian Benteke to Liverpool and Fabian Delph to us. Their transfer policy seems to stem from Brian Marwood in 2012 and Graham Carr at Newcastle in 2013 it needed someone with more tactical shrewdness than Sherwood and as a result they sit bottom of the table with just four points having not won since the opening day. To put that into context they are below Sunderland….Sunderland!!!
Remi Garde wisely chose to take over after the Spurs game on Monday night where I doubt Villa would have got a result if they’d have stayed out on that field until the groundsman showed up and the players went home. He arrives at Villa after managing Lyon from 2011 to 2014 in which he managed to lift the French Cup. Although it’s easy to look at Lyon’s 4th, 3rd and 5th place finishes under him as failures after Lyon had played in the Champions League for 12 straight years as well as winning seven consecutive league titles but it came at a time of great financial hardship as Claude Puel has spent millions on the likes of Hugo Lloris, Ederson, John Mensah, Miralem Pjanić, Miralem Pjanić, Lisandro López, Bafétimbi Gomis, Michel Bastos, Aly Cissokho, Dejan Lovren and Yoann Gourcuff and were now forced to re-focus on bringing through young prospects. It will be a significant achievement if Garde can mould his squad into a cohesive unit to turn their season around.
City
Well doesn’t it seem like every time we get our players fit again there is another international break. Having managed without David Silva and Sergio Aguero since the last international break and seemingly without Gael Clichy or Sami Nasri all season they’re all finally edging closer to fitness only to fly off around the world again. Fortunately on the Silva front Spain have the relatively minor trip to football minnows England.
In terms of his team selection the trip to Seville will have a say on his team but part of me would like to match them just to see Kelechi running at new-Richard Dunne Ciaran Clark. Whether it’s a 442 or 4231 City, if they play anything like, they should have too much for Aston Villa. Villa’s leading goalscorer is Scott Sinclair who leads the way with 6 goals (four in the league cup) followed by Rudy Gestede with four. He’s the classic large striker that we always used to struggle against so I expect Otamendi to retain his place and keep him quiet.
Prediction
3-0 City
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