Aston Villa Aston Villa

Man City Manchester City

TEAM NEWS 

Pep Guardiola has made three changes for the trip to Villa Park with Oscar Bobb, Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden coming into the XI.

City XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Stones, Gvardiol, Reijnders, Bernardo (C), Bobb, Foden, Savinho, Haaland.

Substitutes: Trafford, Ake, Marmoush, Kovacic, Cherki, Doku, Nico, O’Reilly, Lewis. 

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Pau, Digne, Onana, Kamara, McGinn (C), Buendia, Rogers, Watkins. 

Substitutes: Bizot, Lindelof, Maatsen, Mings, Bogarde, Barkley, Guessand, Malen, Sancho.

WHEN AND WHERE

We travel to Villa Park in the Premier League on Sunday 26 October, with the game scheduled for kick-off at 14:00 (UK).

The game will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Ultra HD, Sky GO and NOW TV.

You can also keep across all of the action via the official Man City app, as well as the key moments on X/Twitter: @ManCity.

Supporters living around the world can find out how they can tune in via our global listings, courtesy of livesoccertv.com.

Next Fixture

All fixtures

Sun 26 Oct

Premier League

Aston Villa

14:00

GMT

Man City

OPPOSING MANAGER - UNAI EMERY

Emery is a hugely experienced coach, most famous for his incredible hat-trick of UEFA Europa League titles in 2014, 2015 and 2016 with Sevilla, before winning the competition a remarkable fourth time in 2021 with Villarreal.

Emery managed Arsenal in between those successes and returned back to England with Villa, whom he superbly guided into the UEFA Champions League, where they claimed a famous 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich on their way to the quarter-finals, where their journey ended.

The Spaniard is incredibly passionate on the touchline and demands a high energy style of football, encouraging his teams to press forward with hunger and desire.

We can expect him to deploy a fluid 4-2-3-1 formation, which could easily transform into a 4-3-3, as he tends to assign a traditional midfielder into one of the wider midfield roles. John McGinn is usually the man for that job, drifting inside to help pack the midfield.

DANGER MEN

Former City youngster Morgan Rogers is the one to watch for Villa. The Englishman is comfortable on the ball, has an eye for a goal and works tirelessly to help his team defensively, which is a major reason why he is one of Emery’s first names on the teamsheet when available.

He bagged his first goal of the season last weekend and also netted the last time City visited Villa Park, so he will be full of confidence going into the encounter.

Ollie Watkins is the other man to keep an eye on. The striker hasn’t started the season in his usual blistering form, but his runs in behind and blistering pace are a nuisance for any side in the league.

MAN CITY APP COVERAGE

Our official Man City app allows you to follow all of the action from West London in one place.

Minute-by-minute text updates will begin in our Matchday Centre two hours before kick-off, while our Matchday Live show will begin at around 12:45 (UK).

Chris Samba and Joleon Lescott will be the guests on the latest Matchday Live show, offering their expert insight before, during and after the action. 

During the game you can also listen to live audio commentary from Alistair Mann and Kit Symons while our text commentary continues.

Make sure to have push notifications turned on as well, so you can be alerted to key moments in the action, including goals, red cards and the team news.

We’ll have a quick-hit 2-minute highlights package available from 17:45 (UK) while you can sign-in to watch a free 8-minute edit from midnight. 

On CITY+ meanwhile, from midnight there’ll be our popular full-match replay as well as our new extended highlights offering which features the best 20 minutes of action from the game.

PEP GUARDIOLA PREVIEW

“They were much, much better than us in the last two fixtures we played at Villa Park,” the manager told media at his press conference.

“Hopefully it will be different on Sunday.

“The admiration I have for Unai is so high. He is incredibly consistent, well prepared and so smart, really good.

“Aston Villa I know they aren’t in the Champions League for a one point.

“I think in the last nine games they won eight and then just lost the last one at Old Trafford. So for me it is a team that is Champions League. 

“They created a lot of problems for the Champions League winners, PSG so they are well organised, with a lot of quality and they have everything.

“It’s one of the toughest, toughest, toughest away games we have in the season.”

PREVIOUS MEETING

Our last trip to Villa Park ended in disappointment last December, as goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers either side of half time saw the hosts claim the three points.

In the reverse fixture later on in the season at the Etihad, we got our revenge, claiming a 2-1 victory thanks to a 94th minute winner from Matheus Nunes.

Match Report

Haaland's brace fires City into second spot

LAST TIME OUT

Erling Haaland’s brace inspired us to a 2-0 victory over Everton in the league last weekend, which after all was said and done, left us three points behind league-leaders Arsenal.

We were in midweek action on Tuesday evening where goals from Haaland and Bernardo Silva saw us claim a 2-0 Champions League away win against Villarreal.

As for Villa, they continued their impressive recent form to secure a crucial 2-1 victory away to Tottenham, coming from a goal behind to win thanks to goals from Rogers and Emiliano Buendia.

Emery’s side will be in action on Thursday night in the Europa League, away to Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles.

MATCH OFFICIALS

Referee: Michael Oliver.

Assistants: Stuart Burt, Ian Hussin.

Fourth official: Rob Jones.

VAR: John Brooks. Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton.

GLOBAL TV LISTINGS

Supporters around the world can find out how to tune in to watch the match live by clicking here, courtesy of livesoccertv.com.

(Listings correct as of 22 October)