MY ACCOUNT
Aston Villa have made a slow start to the Premier League season and things will not get any easier for boss Steven Gerrard when his strugglers face rampant champions Manchester City.
Gerrard’s outfit have lost four of their opening five league games and scored just four goals which is five fewer than City’s remarkable hotshot Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian will rock up at Villa Park aiming to be the first Premier League player to score a hat-trick of hat-tricks.
Haaland took home the match ball against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest to move City up to second in the table with the only dropped points coming in a 3-3 draw at Newcastle.
Team news
New signing Leander Dendoncker needs to be assessed following his move from Wolves with Gerrard revealing the Belgian is struggling with a throat issue.
Diego Carlos remains sidelined although loanee Jan Bednarek is available.
City could also see a new face in their squad with centre-back Manuel Akanji signed from Borussia Dortmund to cover for the injured Aymeric Laporte.
Former Villa ace Jack Grealish and Nathan Ake have returned to training but Kalvin Phillips needs to be assessed.
The stats
City have scored at least twice in every Premier League game this season and if you were to also include last term in that top-flight run, the sequence has stretched to 14 games following the 6-0 demolition of Forest on Wednesday.
Haaland’s start to life at City has been breathtaking and no Premier League player has scored more goals than his nine in the opening five matches of a season.
The Norwegian beat the previous best mark of eight set by Sergio Aguero and Micky Quinn.
No player has had more shots than Haaland’s 22 in the Premier League this term – he is joint-top on that figure with Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic – and 12 of those efforts have been on target.
There had been some debate as to how the former Borussia Dortmund striker would fit in at City with their fluid forward line, particularly as Pep Guardiola has had an uneasy relationship with previous classic number nine-type players.
Interestingly, Haaland has had only 100 touches which is easily the fewest of City’s regular starters but he is making those moments count to devastating effect.
It has been a much harder start to the campaign for Villa and they will not welcome the sight of City considering the recent head-to-head records between the clubs.
Villa have lost the last nine games against City in all competitions, including on the final day of last season when Guardiola’s men recovered from a two-goal deficit to be crowned champions at the Etihad.
In Villa’s last 16 league games they have won only three times (losing 10) and two of those victories came against clubs now relegated, Norwich and Burnley, which has led to some question marks over the future of manager Gerrard.
Prediction
City are likely to prove too strong in all departments for Villa, who do not seem to be playing with the confidence required to land what would be the biggest upset of the season.
There is no clear identity in Villa’s style and they have not been helped by Gerrard’s inconsistency in team selection with the only league win coming against Everton.
The opening defeat at Bournemouth did not bode well and recent losses to Crystal Palace, West Ham and Arsenal highlighted some of the problems facing Gerrard.
They had only four shots at the Emirates on Wednesday and conceded 22 which will be music to the ears of Haaland.
An away win looks likely and City should be able to triumph by at least a couple of goals.
