Premier League 2022-23: Manchester City vs Aston Villa: Predicted lineup, injury news, head-to-head, telecast

A 1-0 defeat to Tottenham might have hurt their title race, but they will be looking to bounce back when they host The Villans.

Pep Guardiola's team (Manchester City) are still chasing after Arsenal in the race for the Premier League title, and as they will be hoping to cut the gap by defeating Villa, they can prepare for their forthcoming match in good fashion.

The Midlands club (Aston Villa) have gained some life under Unai Emery, but their attempt to move up the table has been severely hampered by a high level of inconsistency.

Kick-off:

12-02-2023; 4:30 pm GMT, 10 pm IST

Manchester City form (all competition): L-W-W-L-W

Aston Villa form (all competition): L-W-W-D-W

Players to watch

Manchester City: Jack Grealish

Grealish may have taken some time to settle in at Manchester City, but he is still the only one of their players capable of creating space for teammates by dribbling past defenders and into open areas. He has excellent dribbling skills and will be useful without Foden.

Aston Villa: Leon Bailey

He is a fantastic player who helps Aston Villa play fluid football by opening up spaces for them with his roving dashes. Bailey is not only a talented player, but he also has a knack for scoring goals, which will be helpful for Emery as he pushes the Villa to compete in Europe.

Match facts

• City are yet to lose home games against Aston Villa, as they are undefeated in 12 matches.
• Villa have just once in 29 away games against the reigning champions.
• Villa have won all three of their away games under Emery, which they have only done under John Gregory.

Injury and team news

John Stones might be out for a month for City after Guardiola revealed the defender had a thigh issue. Following a sickness, Phil Foden is striving to rejoin the team.

Bertrand Traore, Jed Steer, and Diego Carlos are Villa's lengthy absentees. After giving up four against Leicester a week ago, Emery might recall Alex Moreno, who he bought in January.

Head-to-head stats

Matches: 103

Manchester City: 50

Draws: 26

Aston Villa: 27

Predicted lineup

Manchester City predicted lineup (4-2-3-1):

Ederson; Lewis; Akanji; Laporte; Ake; Gundogan; Rodri; De Bruyne; Mahrez; Haaland; Grealish

Aston Villa predicted lineup (4-4-2):

Martinez; Young, Konsa, Mings, Moreno; Ramsey, Kamara, Luiz; Buendia, Watkins, Bailey

Prediction

The fact that City will be playing a defence-leaky squad should help their situation. There could be a lot of goals, so it will be interesting to observe how aggressively the visitors start the game.

Prediction: Manchester City 2-0 Aston Villa

Where and how can I watch the match?

India: Hotstar, Star Sports HD+

UK: Sky Sports

USA – NBC Sport

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