Manchester City v Aston Villa Preview
With the Premier League title nearly out of the question, Manchester City are hoping to gain some silverware with the FA Cup. Next in their quest are Aston Villa at Eastlands in a Wednesday night match.
In the Premiership table, City are third and Villa are 12th. After a disappointing 1-1 draw with Fulham last weekend, City midfielder Gareth Barry admitted that City’s Premier League title hopes are all but gone as they are a full 10 points behind rivals Manchester United.
City have just one win in five Premier League fixtures. But they have four clean sheets in the last five overall matches, two of which were shutouts against Aris Salonika in the Europa League and one was against Notts County. To note, five of City and Villa’s last six matches have totaled over 2.5 goals.
Judging by the last meeting between these two sides, the man to back on City is Mario Balotelli. He completed a hat trick at Eastlands in December for a 4-0 City win. He has 9/2 odds at SkyBet to be first goalscorer. Villa have improved a lot since then and recently beat City 1-0 at Villa Park on a Darren Bent goal, but Bent will not be playing this time.
Villa go into this match as the underdogs and have nothing to lose as they have moved safely away from the relegation zone. They have lost only one of their last nine fixtures, the defeat coming against Manchester United. They are coming off a 4-1 victory over Blackburn and Ashley Young had two scores. He has 10/1 odds at SkyBet to score first against City and add on to his eight goals on the season.
Manchester City v Aston Villa Match Odds (supplied by SkyBet)
Manchester City: 8/13
Draw: 11/4
Aston Villa: 9/2