Man City v Aston Villa
16th September 2007 Kick-Off 4pm

Decent start to the season for both of these teams and they will be hoping to continue this with the live game on Sky on Sunday afternoon.

Head to Head

Over the years the games have been cracking and high scoring affairs with only twice in the last 6 not going-overs.

Manchester City come out on top with 4 wins out of six but City don’t have it all their own way with Villa picking up two wins of their own and the most recent being last season.

Apr07: Manchester City 0 Aston Villa 2 (EPL)
Oct05: Manchester City 3 Aston Villa 1 (EPL)
Nov04: Manchester City 2 Aston Villa 0 (EPL)
Sep03: Manchester City 4 Aston Villa 1 (EPL)
Dec02: Manchester City 3 Aston Villa 1 (EPL)
Mar01: Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 3 (EPL)

Played 6: Manchester City won 4 Draw 0 Aston Villa won 2

Current Form

Manchester City 5th (9 points from 5 games)
Decent enough start to the season for Manchester City and Sven and throw into that an early derby win at home to Manchester United and it was little wonder the Manchester City fans began to think of Europe and some even mentioned the words Champions League.

Now far from me to say they were getting carried away with early season success but for me they were getting carried away with early season success and have been brought down to earth a bit lately with a couple of results.

I have only seen them play live once this season and that was in the Manchester derby and god only knows how they came away with the win.

After their great start City have now last their last two games however both were away from home against Blackburn and Arsenal and while the Arsenal game may have been expected I would have thought that most would have thought that they could have got something away at Ewood.

Blackburn 1 Manchester City 0 (EPL)
Bristol City 1 Manchester City 2 (CC)
Arsenal 1 Manchester City 0 (EPL)
Manchester City 1 Manchester Untied 0 (EPL)
Manchester City 1 Derby County 0 (EPL)

Aston Villa 10th (7 points from 4 games)
Aston Villa have impressed me this season from what I’ve seen of them and for me despite being behind Manchester City in both the league position and points total (however they have played a game less) are the better team on showings so far this season.

Villa lost to Liverpool on the opening day after a late Liverpool goal and while I do think Liverpool were the better team on that day, not many people may have begrudged Villa a point.

Villa also went to Newcastle and got what I was informed was a well-deserved point.

Then we have last time out when they beat Chelsea 2-0 at Villa Park and fully deserved the win for me. As such this will have got a lot of Villa fans hoping that they can push on from this and move up the table.

Aston Villa 2 Chelsea 0 (EPL)
Wrexham 0 Aston Villa 5 (CC)
Aston Villa 2 Fulham 1 (EPL)
Newcastle 0 Aston Villa 0 (EPL)
Aston Villa 1 Liverpool 2 (EPL)

The Verdict

But for a late winner Aston Villa could have been sitting after four games unbeaten and what would have been classed as a nice start so far would have been upgraded to a great start. Newcastle fans informed me that Villa played very well when they played them and were well worth their point.

Man City have also had a nice start which has been some what tainted by the last two defeats away from home but now its back to the home ground and they beat the Champions last time out while at home.

For me this will be a tight game with Manchester City wanting to turn around two defeats and Villa not wanting to throw away all the hard work from the Chelsea game and as such it will be a draw for me.

There hasn’t been a draw when Manchester City play at home to Aston Villa since 1994 so you could argue its well overdue.

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Pick Manchester City and Aston Villa to draw @ 3.20