Aston Villa v Manchester City: predicted line-up, team news and match preview

Aston Villa tossed off their winning run by losing 2-1 against Go Ahead Eagles in the league phase of the Europa League on Thursday.

Villa can still keep one positive streak intact with a win on Sunday. They won their previous three Premier League fixtures and welcome Manchester City to Villa Park for an early kick-off.

Unai Emery must be frustrated by what he saw in the Netherlands in midweek. He’ll take his own share of the responsibility but I’d be surprised if there were any specific regrets. He has to use Villa’s squad with multiple competitions to play in and the game against Go Ahead Eagles was ripe for changes.

Villa’s aim and expectation was to win that match. That they didn’t is ultimately something Emery will have to wear but the team he sent out should have been enough to get the job done.

Managing the personnel to navigate the fixture list is fine. Complacency is not. Villa got the bloody nose they deserved. It could yet have no impact at all on their progress in the Europa League but fans expect a reaction on Sunday.

The reanimated goal robot

Not to be alarmist, but Erling Haaland has scored 11 goals in 683 minutes of Premier League football this season. He has four goals in three games in the Champions League and nine goals in three for Norway.

That’s 24 goals this season. Twenty. Four.

Last season’s Premier League tally of 22 goals was Haaland’s lowest since he moved to England, the kind of dip most human footballers would accept quite happily.

City weren’t at their best last season and one of the causes or effects of that was that teams could fear Haaland to a normal degree, as if he were a very good Premier League striker instead of some sort of goalthirsty extraterrestrial.

Villa’s defence has been in reasonably good nick for the most part this season but there’s no other test like this one. Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres will need to perform brilliantly to keep him at bay, and they’ll need some help too.

It’s actually been a good while since the Norwegian scored against Villa. Emery and his players won’t be complacent here, that’s for sure.

Villa team news

Tyrone Mings and Jadon Sancho will be available after returning to the starting line-up against Go Ahead Eagles. Likewise Ross Barkley, the player excluded from the Europa League squad, is back in the mix as Villa return to domestic football.

There is a doubt over the availability of Lucas Digne. The left-back earned himself a nasty gash across the ankle in Villa’s win against Spurs and was unable to feature in the Netherlands on Thursday.

Youri Tielemans will be absent until after the next international break. Right-back Andrés García is also injured.

Villa predicted line-up v Man City

It’s very difficult to guess what Emery will do in this situation. Villa were awful on Thursday but all we can really assume is that the players who came into the side from the sidelines won’t much have impressed the manager.

The chances of Mings unseating Torres on Sunday were already small and nothing about the match in Deventer will have increased them. Ian Maatsen will be back on the bench if Digne can play. Morgan Rogers and Boubacar Kamara will undoubtedly start after they were rested.

My expectation in general is that Emery will look at the strength of the opposition and pick both the best team available to him and the most sturdy.

I think he’ll want Kamara, Amadou Onana and John McGinn all involved, though the combination of Evann Guessand and Matty Cash on the right could appeal.

If the manager did go that way, he’ll be looking for a spark too. Call me crazy, but Emery doesn’t mind surprising us. Sancho is my wildcard wager this weekend.

Where to watch Villa v Man City

Villa’s home game against Manchester City will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports+ in the UK.

Read more ➡️ How to watch Aston Villa v Manchester City: kick-off time, TV channels and streams

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