Manchester City will look to stay on top of the Premier League by ensuring Aston Villa’s woes continue in new manager Remi Garde’s first game in charge.
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City are joint-top of the Premier League with Arsenal following the latter’s 1-1 draw against Tottenham later on Sunday.
“We should have won but I feel very proud of the players”.
Although they were undoubtedly fortunate to do so given the chances that Manuel Pellegrini’s side spurned throughout the game, it was a result that Villa can build on moving forward and take confidence from after ending their eight-game losing streak in the league.
This is a match City should win easily. These things happen in football and we were unlucky not to score in the three or four options [chances] that we had.
The hosts added numbers into their attack as the encounter drew to a close, and Rudy Gestede nearly sneaked one past Joe Hart in the 87th minute, but his effort was only inches too high. “They were not at it, you can complain and say maybe if Aguero was there, he would have finished, but he wasn’t”.
Kevin De Bruyne is set for a recall after being rested in midweek.
De Bruyne, who has been exceptional since his move from Wolfsburg in the summer, will regret his decision to try and flick the ball into the net from a few yards out rather than simply place it with the side of his foot. Ashley Westwood has lead the team in chances created this season with 18.
He remained in a positive mood despite this, explaining that they “got the clean sheet we wanted”, and defended well “from front to back”, something which they’d struggled to do in previous games – shipping 13 in their previous six league games. But I said no because the previous one, the serious one, was in a period when I was not ready to start again.
Although City saw Wilfried Bony suffer a hamstring injury at Villa Park, they should have several key figures back to bolster their squad after the two-week interval.
“Bony has a hamstring injury and we will see on Monday how long he will be”.
City beat Aston Villa 2-0 in the same fixture last season before then winning 3-2 at the Etihad in April.
This was their seventh successive game without the injured pair of David Silva and Sergio Aguero, who should both be fit after the worldwide break.
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Asked if Delph could expect a hard welcome, Pellegrini said: “No, I hope he will not receive that”. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
