For the 23rd matchday of the English Premier League, Manchester City welcomes Aston Villa to the Etihad Stadium.
Under-the-radar City last week at home to Tottenham, easily beaten 1-0. He was behind in the score from the first quarter of the match, then he tried to react having opportunities to equalize the match with a post. In the replay, however, she was blocked by her defensively improved opponent and did not appear aggressive, unfortunately she could not avoid defeat.
Thus, City experienced their 2nd defeat in the last 4 league matches, and 4th overall in the league, remains in 2rd place in the standings with 45 points and in the plus 2 from the 3rd United and in the minus 6 from the first Arsenal who yesterday stayed in the draw at home with Brentford.
In the off-season, however, he has huge problems as he was referred to an independent committee for 115 alleged violations of the Premier League's funding rules, over a 10-year period. According to the regulations, if she is ultimately found guilty (the process will take a long time) she may face points being deducted, even being kicked out of the league.
A short 4 game unbeaten run came to an end for Aston Villa last weekend after they were beaten 4-2 at home by Leicester. He entered the match strongly, opening the score in the 9th minute, but he did not last long as he conceded the equalizer shortly after. In the 32nd minute, he took the lead again but "managed" until the end of the half to concede two goals and find himself behind in the score. In the replay, he couldn't look particularly aggressive, in the 79th minute he conceded a fourth goal on a counterattack and it was all over.
With this defeat Aston Villa remained at 28 points and in 11th place in the standings, minus 7 from the top seven and European tickets and plus 10 from the relegation line.
A strange matchup as, apart from the fact that both are coming from bad defeats, there is also the issue of City's punishment. Competitively, however, it is a given that she is far superior to her opponent, yesterday's rout by Arsenal gives her more motivation and I think that she will not let the opportunity to reduce even more to lose in a match where the score will hardly stay low.
Tip: Manchester City – Aston Villa 1 & Over 3,5 with odds of 2.70