Aston Villa vs Manchester City (Premier League): Match Preview, Team News, Head to Head, How to Watch | OneFootball

Manchester City are on the road again this Sunday afternoon as they bid to make it 10 matches unbeaten in all competitions through their trip away to Aston Villa.

Last time out, Pep Guardiola’s side got back to winning ways on the continental stage with a 0-2 victory over Villarreal CF in the UEFA Champions League’s league phase in a fairly dominant display as the hosts barely laid a glove on the visitors in the first-half in particular.

City nullified their opposition completely with Villarreal happy to sit back and let their visitors have the lion’s share of possession, eventually leading to their demise after a darting run by Rico Lewis and a fizzed cross was hammered home by Erling Haaland.

Just before the interval, City doubled their lead after a cross from Savinho was met with a delicate header by club captain Bernardo Silva, leaving Luiz Junior in Villarreal’s goal powerless, capping off a perfect half of football by all accounts.

Villarreal came out much stronger in the second-half and certainly had the bit between their teeth, creating many chances – several of which fell to former Arsenal man Nicolas Pepe. But the Yellow Submarine failed to convert, and City saw out a 0-2 victory on the road.

The only stain on an otherwise perfect performance was an unfortunate injury to Nico, forcing off the Spaniard in the 57th minute as City lost another defensive midfielder to the medical room.

Attention now turns back to domestic action as Manchester City travel to Birmingham in a tough away trip to Villa Park with Unai Emery and Aston Villa on the other side of Sunday’s ticket.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this difficult clash in the West Midlands!

Match Details

Aston Villa host Manchester City at Villa Park on Sunday 26th October, with kick-off scheduled for 14:00 (UK).

Match Officials

The Premier League have confirmed that Michael Oliver will be the man in the middle for Sunday afternoon’s clash, whilst fellow Englishman John Brooks will be the VAR.

Check out the full list of match officials below!

Team News

For the home side, they have very few injury woes as they prepare to face Manchester City, with Belgian Youri Tielemans the only absentee through a calf injury, whilst Tyrone Mings is back for the Villains after playing the full game in midweek against Go Ahead Eagles.

For the visitors, Abdukodir Khusanov and Rodri are both confirmed to be absent from the trip to Birmingham by Pep Guardiola, continuing their recovery from respective injuries. On a positive note, however, the Uzbek defender is seemingly nearing a return.

After his injury in midweek, Nico Gonzalez is also a doubt but is not confirmed to be sidelined entirely for the fixture, and his availability will be assessed in the lead-up to the clash through training ground activities.

Press Conference Quotes

On Rodri and Abdukodir Khusanov: “Still the guys who were not able in Villarreal; still they are not ready… I think he [Khusanov] is close to coming back, but still I think he’s not ready. He had an injury in a dangerous, dangerous position in his body.”

On Nico Gonzalez: “I didn’t see the doctors, and we’ll see tomorrow – today and tomorrow – how he feels… Something with his feet.”

On Matheus Nunes: “He can be an incredible right-back. Because he’s a holding midfielder with incredible physicality going back, and as much as he’s focused, he can become one of the best.

“It’s a question of him now; we talked a lot about that. Just change your mind and feel that you can feel that, because he has special attributes to play on the sides. In the last two or three games, he has played unbelievably!”

On the Premier League title race: “Well, in the first two or three games, for sure we are out [of the Premier League title race]. And Liverpool is already done, and now it looks like Liverpool is done. And I’ll tell you that they will be back.

“I know all the pundits, all the specialists, and former players; they know everything that is going to happen after five games – I’m not able to do that. Always I wait for 10, 15 games to know exactly what is going on.

“But I think obviously Liverpool and Arsenal are there, someone else will be there, and hopefully we can be there.”

On Unai Emery: “The admiration I have for Unai [Emery] is so high; he is incredibly consistent, well-prepared, and so smart. He’s really good.”

Head-to-Head

In the last fixture between these two sides, Manchester City emerged 2-1 victors at the Etihad Stadium after Bernardo Silva gave the home side the lead early on with a tame shot beating Emiliano Martinez and some poor goalkeeping by the Argentine’s standard.

Ruben Dias then proceeded to foul Jacob Ramsey inside the area just 10 minutes later, allowing a rather unpopular Marcus Rashford to score, as the former Manchester United man had no issues in slotting past Stefan Ortega Moreno to level the scoring in the 18th minute.

Just when it seemed like Manchester City were going to drop more vital points, Jeremy Doku produced a dazzling run to skip past Axel Disasi and produce a sublime, inch-perfect outside-of-the-foot pass to the back post, allowing Matheus Nunes to hammer in with no remorse in the 94th minute.

Throughout history, Manchester City have had the better of the Villains, emerging victorious 75 times, with 40 ending in a stalemate, and Aston Villa winning the remaining 51 of the 166 meetings in total.

Statistics

Aston Villa have won their last two home league games against Manchester City, last winning more consecutively between 1960 and 1975 (5).

Manchester City have won 31 games and scored 101 goals against Aston Villa in the Premier League – only against Newcastle (32 wins, 106 goals) have they done so more.

After a five-game winless start in the Premier League this season (D3, L2), Aston Villa have since won each of their last three games. The only team in top-flight history to have a five-game winless start and then win their next four games is Preston in 1936/37.

Manchester City have won more points in the Premier League than any other side since the start of April (39 – W12, D3, L2). They have only conceded the first goal in two games in that time, while they have opened the scoring in their last six games, their best run since a run of eight between April and August 2024.

Aston Villa have won their last two Premier League games when they have conceded the first goal, beating Fulham 3-1 and Spurs 2-1. Since Unai Emery’s first game with the Villains in November 2022, only Pep Guardiola (14) has more wins after conceding first than Emery (11).

How To Watch

For viewers in the United Kingdom, the game will be available to watch live on Sky Sports, with action getting underway from 14:00 GMT.

For those in the United States, the match will commence at 9:00 EST, with the clash available to stream on multiple platforms such as fuboTV and NBC Sports.

Check out the full global TV listings HERE!

City Xtra will have full live coverage available on our X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram channels throughout matchday, with content also provided on cityxtra.co.uk!