Manchester City face a dauting trip to Villa Park without two of their key players.
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00:00 Manchester City travel to Villa Park in a rare midweek Premier League fixture on Wednesday night.
00:06 For the champions it's an opportunity to actually get back to winning ways because they haven't won
00:11 any of the last three games in the league. A rare run for them draws against Chelsea, Liverpool and
00:17 Arsenal. Of course very difficult fixtures in that run and they're going to face an equally difficult
00:22 test this midweek when they travel to Villa Park because Villa have really enjoyed playing at home
00:27 and have actually won their last 13 Premier League games. So it's going to be such a difficult game
00:32 for City who really aren't in particularly good form at the moment as I mentioned. Certainly not
00:37 at their best levels at the moment and they're conceding far too many goals. It's something that
00:42 Pep Guardiola has referenced in over recent games. In midweek he said that his players looked anxious
00:48 and they were making just too many mistakes at the back and that was certainly the case against Spurs.
00:53 And I suppose over the last three games as well City have led late going into those games against
01:00 Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, sorry and Spurs and all three of them they've managed to let
01:06 lead slip. So it's very uncharacteristic from City and I do think they look a little bit fatigued in
01:11 my eyes. Pep Guardiola as we know likes to work with that smaller squad and you do wonder whether
01:15 he's coming back to bite him a little bit because at the moment they actually just don't have the
01:19 players to come in and make changes. And there's been a lot of suggestions that perhaps there's
01:23 just a little bit of motivation that has dropped for City. Of course you had that phenomenal season
01:28 last year winning the treble but are their motivation and are their levels just at this the
01:33 same point as they were last season. I think Villa, going to Villa is a great opportunity to prove that
01:40 and particularly as well they have such a good record against Villa. They actually haven't lost
01:44 against the Midlands club in over a decade and really have loved playing Villa certainly since
01:49 they came back to the Premier League as well although they did draw a Villa Park last year.
01:54 And there are a couple of injuries I should mention for City that they're a bit of concern.
01:57 John Stones whether he's going to be available to come in and play or not I'm not sure.
02:02 Pep Guardiola recently said that he needed a little bit of strengthening work on a hip injury
02:07 so I'm not sure if he's going to be able to come in and play and that is an issue because
02:10 Rodri is actually suspended for the midweek game. Of course when he was suspended earlier in the
02:15 season for that red card against Forest and City lost all three games so without him they are
02:20 severely weakened and I think I'm quite able to reference a couple of weeks ago that if he sets
02:24 up his side without Rodri and without Stones two players who kind of push in from defence into
02:28 midfield and play that kind of hybrid role City really struggle without them so that'll be a big
02:33 blow. Another big blow is actually Jack Realish as well because he's missed the opportunity to go
02:38 back to play his former side because he picked up like Rodri a fifth booking of the season
02:42 against Spurs so he won't be able to take part in that game and that is compounded by an injury to
02:49 Jeremy Doku who came off in the second half actually for Realish against Spurs seemed to
02:54 be indicating a kind of point in his leg as he came off and apparently picked up a bit of a knock.
02:58 I think Guardiola will give more of an update on that on Tuesday to see if he is available for the
03:02 game against Villa but loads of injuries for City at the moment and I mean they've obviously got the
03:06 long term one to Kevin De Bruyne they've also got Mateus Nunez out at the moment so loads of issues
03:11 for City to deal with and as I say such a difficult game going up against Unai Emery's side they're
03:17 currently fourth in the table just one place above and one place behind City in the league
03:23 and actually if Villa win on Wednesday night they would leapfrog City in the table so impressive
03:27 is their form being and so I suppose City have really dropped in the last couple of weeks and
03:32 I think that's an indication of both so look things will be really really entertaining game
03:36 both teams are going to score lots of goals will attack will entertain have clear philosophies and
03:41 I think it'd be a fantastic game to watch one that's on Amazon Prime and I think a lot of
03:45 people obviously can watch that in the UK certainly as well so a really interesting
03:50 game and one that I think will be fascinating to watch for City fans for Villa fans and for neutrals.