Premier League: One More Step for the Sky Blues

Manchester City vs Aston Villa

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City welcome Aston Villa to the Etihad Stadium for what the Sky Blue half of Manchester hopes will be a title coronation.

Victory for the hosts will make it four league titles in five seasons and it will put a gloss on a season that has been otherwise a little disappointing, with exits in all three cup competitions before the final stage. If Manchester City falter then Liverpool are poised to pounce, and Jurgen Klopp’s Reds are still in the hunt for an unprecedented quadruple.   

The Sky Blues are red hot favourites to win the 2022 Premier League title at odds of 1.16 here at SBOTOP and they are a similar price to beat Aston Villa on Sunday, and failure for the Sky Blues is almost unthinkable; though Liverpool do have an ally at the game in the shape of Villa boss Steven Gerrard.  

Talking Points

Manchester’s steely focus

City are homing in on yet another league title and they have been in charge for most of the campaign. When Liverpool closed the gap to one point a few weeks ago some questions were asked, as it didn’t look like the Reds were about to drop points any time soon. But they were frustrated in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur so when the Sky Blues were held to a draw by West Ham it meant that they were still a point clear and with a superior goal difference.

This season the Premier League 2022 betting odds have backed the Sky Blues from the word go and haven’t waivered no matter how hard Liverpool have pushed Guardiola’s men. And the boss says if they stick to their game plan and focus on the game they have nothing to fear. But he does say that the Premier League is the biggest prize of all, in a clears swipe at Klopp’s trophy collectors: “The league is more difficult,” says Guardiola. There’s a lot of weeks and games, you are struggling with injuries, have good and bad moments. It’s satisfying because it’s every day. It gives you the sense that we enjoy a lot. There was one year when Liverpool were unstoppable and we were not good enough.”  

City’s best player Kevin De Bruyne will be the biggest threat if Villa allow him too much space, while Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez ands Raheem Sterling are all in line for a start behind lone striker Gabriel Jesus. But City will be without central defender who went off injured in the Sky Blues’ recent victory over Newcastle United.

Gerrard is Liverpool through and through

The interesting sub plot in this game is that Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard played his whole career at Liverpool, the club he supported as a boy, and he would love nothing more than to help them win the title. The Reds have a home date with Wolves on Sunday and should win that game, so if City somehow lose to Villa then the title will head to Merseyside.

Gerrard is clear that his loyalty right now is to win points for his club, saying: “We’ll go out at the weekend and give it everything we’ve got to try and get points for Aston Villa and our supporters. If that inevitably helps Liverpool, fantastic, but my priority is to try and get points for Aston Villa.”

The boss left striker Danny Ings and former Liverpool favourite Philippe Coutinho on the bench for Villa’s Thursday night date with relegation threatened Burnley, but he brought them on with the score at 1-1 but neither could break through. Centre forward Ollie Watkins is back from injury and is likely to start alongside Ings against City but, like their hosts, the visitors are without a key centre back. Esri Konsa has been Villa’s best defender this campaign but he is out with a knee injury and Tyrone Mings will probably line up alongside Callum Chambers. 

Villa’s recent Premier League 2022 results have been a little patchy but Gerrard will have his players well primed for this huge game.

History

The head to heads in the Premier League era are heavily stacked in the Sky Blues favour by 31 wins to seven and there have been nine draws. The Manchester club has won the last six, with a goal difference of 17 to four.

In terms of recent form Villa have won two, drawn three and lost just one of the last six games while the Sky Blues have won four, lost one and drawn one.

Betting Tip

City are free scoring but Villa have conceded just five goals from the last six games and two of those in a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.

Gerrard will try to make this as difficult as he can for the Sky Blues but I expect the hosts to come through, and a score line of 2-0 to City is the most likely outcome at a price of 5.41.

 

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