Expect more misery to be heaped on Aston Villa and their under-fire manager as they face the league leaders, Manchester City on Sunday. With United performing their usual second half of season miracles, City need to get three points here.
It’s been a cold, hard winter for Aston Villa who seem to have given up any hope of challenging for a European place this season. They’re currently 80/1 in the soccer odds to record a top six finish, hardly a dream season.
Villa have rumblings from their own ranks
The Villa villains (allegedly) include new signing Stephen Ireland who was substituted for (allegedly) hurling abuse in his manager’s direction during Villa’s 2-1 defeat away to his old club Newcastle United. Also Villa winger Charles N’Zogbia (oddly enough also an ex-Magpie) has voiced his displeasure at life at Villa Park following his arrival from Wigan. He took to Twitter stating, “For the first time in my life I'm not happy playing football.”
Villa manager Alex McLeish has so far denied to comment on the post, but it seems to be a symptom of the malaise rife in Villa Park.
It hardly helps that his side is stuck down in 13th place with just two wins in 2012 and have earned only five points from their last five league matches. They could do with an easier game than the League leaders.
McLeish isn't a pariah in the dressing room as some of his players are not backward in coming forward to support him, captain Stilian Petrov has backed his under-fire boss, "Our manager will get it right," the 32-year-old told the press "We believe in him and we will keep fighting.
Their most recent defeat, at the hands of this season’s surprise package Newcastle, prompted the following response from McLeish, “It is a kick in the teeth. It was a very good performance but we still have a tendency to make mistakes. I felt we were well worth a point if not all three.”
A victory against Manchester City would be Aston Villa’s first home win since 5th of November, but is an outside bet with the sportsbooks at 9/2. If you do think that Villa will dream the impossible dream and cause the unlikeliest result, back 1-0 (at 14/1) as that was the score City were defeated by both Sunderland and Everton, their two most recent defeats in the league.
As for City….
…if being in Pole Position in the table isn’t enough, Roberto Mancini’s players seem to be well up for it! Edin Dzeko is enjoying his spell at City and claims to be ‘optimistic’ of Premier League triumph
The Bosnian striker has settled in at his new club 13 months after joining from Wolfsburg and feels that it’s injuries that could be the biggest obstacle to securing title glory, “We are in a good position and, even if there are many games until the end, I feel we can be optimistic. I hope we won't have any problems with injuries as every player is so important to us.” he said.
The 25-year-old has clocked up 12 goals so far as City look to record their first top-flight championship since the 1967-68 season.
I'm backing the no-nonsense victory for City and I don’t actually think Villa will ever be in this game, the best they can hope for is to going at half-time with the scores level. Looking at the half-time full-time odds, I'd suggest putting your soccer betting bankroll on either a half-time draw and a City win at 10/3 or City winning both halves at 6/4
Manchester City have only failed to score in one of their last five games, and that was their shock defeat at the end of January, away to Everton. Since then they have managed to score two against Liverpool and three against both Tottenham and Fulham, so you might want to start your correct score betting on two (or more) goals for the Citizens.
Recent form is cold comfort for Villa
Looking at the last five games Aston Villa have only recorded one win and that was a narrow victory against relegation-fodder Wolves. However they have scored at least one goal in each of their last five games and have scored two or more three times (in that spell). You might want to temper your bet on City winning with a goal for the home side. 2-1 to City is at 7/1 and 3-2 to City is at 28/1, make of those odd what you will.
Prediction: I’m going for a 3-1 Manchester City win at 12/1.