Manchester City will look to build on their 4-1 Premier League demolition of rivals Manchester United when they travel to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Manuel Pellegrini's side produced a masterclass at the Etihad Stadium last Sunday, as a Sergio Aguero double and further strikes from Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri consigned the reigning champions to a heavy defeat.
City head into the fixture at Villa Park on a three-game winning run in all competitions, which has seen them score 12 goals and concede just one.
Last week's 3-0 success over Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League and a 5-0 thrashing of Wigan Athletic in the League Cup on Tuesday sandwiched the United victory.
Defenders Micah Richards and Gael Clichy could both feature in the game against Paul Lambert's men after returning from injury against Wigan.
"We'll see if David is fit in the next day," the manager said. "The doctor understands better than me what happened. Maybe for next Saturday I don't think he can play but maybe for next Wednesday against Bayern [Munich in the Champions League] he could be fit."
Centre-back Martin Demichelis, who is yet to make his City debut after joining from Atletico Madrid during the transfer window, also remains sidelined with a knee problem.
Villa will be buoyed by their 1-0 success away to Norwich City on Saturday, which was their first league win since the opening day of the season and came courtesy of striker Libor Kozak's first goal for the club. That win meant Villa ended a run of three successive top-flight defeats, but manager Lambert has since been dealt a huge blow with the news that top scorer Christian Benteke will be out for up to six weeks with a hip flexor injury after he limped off at Carrow Road.
Lambert's side's first outing without the Belgium forward saw them fall to a 4-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Capital One Cup third round on Tuesday. The Scot will also have to do without long-term absentee Charles N'Zogbia (Achilles) against City, while defender Jores Okore is likely to miss the rest of the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament this month.
City have won the last four Barclays Premier League encounters between the two sides, and lead the overall head-to-head league record with 59 wins to Villa's 51.
Aston Villa (from): Given, Guzan, Siegrist, Steer, Baker, Bennett, Clark, Lowton, Luna, Vlaar, Albrighton, Bacuna, Delph, El Ahmadi, Gardner, Herd, Johnson, Stieber, Sylla, Tonev, Westwood, Agbonlahor, Bowery, Helenius, Kozak, Weimann.
Manchester City (from): Hart, Pantilimon, Wright, Boyata, Clichy, Kolarov, Kompany, Lescott, Nastasic, Richards, Zabaleta, Garcia, Fernandinho, Milner, Nasri, Navas, Rodwell, Silva, Toure, Aguero, Dzeko, Guidetti, Jovetic, Negredo, Nimely.
No comments:
Post a Comment