City travel to Villa Park on Monday to face Aston Villa in a game which is a battle between two teams with top four ambitions.
Their have been three summer transfers between the two clubs, most notably Gareth Barry’s £12m move to Eastlands, which left many Villa fans bemused by his actions. Stuart Taylor was next top move to Eastlands as understudy to Shay Given while Richard Dunne moved in the opposite direction on transfer deadline day for a reported £6m.
The blues have a good record against Villa, wining twelve of the twenty four games played and only losing five. However City lost their last visit to Villa Park when a Gabriel Abgonlahor hat-trick condemned City to defeat on the opening day of last season.
With the added interest this game brings, I have asked Villa Mad editor Tom Vickers to give his opinions on the game.
What will the score be on Monday?
I think we are in for a cracker of a game to be honest and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few goals go in. I am going to go for 2-2 because I think that both sides have defences which are yet to properly get to know each other.
Have Villa replaced Barry?
There is only one Gareth Barry! We can never replace him, simply try to fill the void he has left as best we can. Fabian Delph is a raw talent and it is too early for him to be thrown into big Premier League games. Steve Sidwell is a combative midfielder, who is very mobile, whilst Stiliyan Petrov continues to excel in a defensive midfield role.
The man who is best suited to replace Barry appears to be Nigel Reo-Coker as he is tenacious in the tackle and can burst on from a central position but after his recent fallout with Martin O'Neill he may not get many more first team chances.
Who do you think poses the biggest threat from City?
City now have a number of excellent players. There are threats all over the pitch and I would have to extol the virtues of having Barry in your side. He is a superb creative force as I'm sure the Man City fans have seen and he can provide a match-winning spark. Carlos Tevez is a hard worker, whilst Adebayor is undoubtedly dangerous.
One man who we hate to come up against is Shaun Wright-Phillips because he seems to have a personal vendetta against the Villa. He always tears through our defence and we are going to have to hope that Richard Dunne knows how to stop his former team mate.
Who will finish higher: City or Villa?
It's a tough question and if Villa had qualified for the Europa League proper I would have gone for City outright but we could just string a run together like we did last time around and beat Barry and co to a place in the top five.
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