Manchester City hope to return to winning ways on Saturday as they take on Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Pep Guardiola's side lost to Manchester United last weekend to make it 10 winless games from the last 11 in all competitions, with just one win in seven in the Premier League to slip to fifth.
Villa will overtake City with a win on Saturday, although City have had a rare week off and could have Manu Akanji back in the squad after he returned to training on Thursday.
John Stones and Mateo Kovacic have also returned in the last week, however Ruben Dias is the latest player to pick up an injury and joins Nathan Ake, Rodri and Oscar Bobb on the sidelines. Guardiola also confirmed that Ederson is a doubt to face Villa.
Follow below for pre-match build-up, live match updates and post-match reaction from Villa Park.
City can reward their fans - but it will be a battle
Bernardo Silva speaks in today's Manchester Evening News about wanting to reward the fans who have been 'unbelievable' while City have been anything but in recent weeks and months.
This is City's last game before Christmas and the travelling fans will be desperate for something to cheer about - they haven't celebrated a win since Wolves away in October.
Aston Villa also aren't quite what they were last season as PSR and the Champions League have taken a bit out of them but they still represent the best team City have faced since Liverpool.
Guardiola spoke about players having the burden of defending their legacy, but there aren't too many happy memories from this ground in recent years. It is going to be a battle and City will have to be up for it.
Two more injuries to join Dias
So Ederson is out and that isn't much of a surprise. But it is a shock to see Matheus Nunes out of the squad entirely even given his blunders against United last weekend.
Nunes is 'injured' according to City, along with Ederson - while Akanji and Stones are rushed back into the line up when they would usually be eased back in.
It's a reminder that every step forward brings two or more steps back this season.
City team news as Ederson, Walker and De Bruyne out
Ederson doesn't make the squad as Guardiola hinted, and there's a couple of big changes as Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne are dropped to the bench.
Rico Lewis returns so that means both John Stones and Manu Akanji are brought back from injury straight away. Mateo Kovacic is also back in the starting XI.
Confirmed City team news:
- Ortega, Lewis, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Gundogan, Bernardo, Grealish, Foden, Haaland
Chief City Writer Simon Bajkowski, at Villa Park:
It’s a risk for City to start John Stones and Manu Akanji together given they have both been injured, but it does mean that Kyle Walker gets a breather on the bench and won’t be put under even more scrutiny in what has been a nightmare season for him. Nathan Ake is also back on the bench, although you wonder how fit he is given he only suffered his injury two weeks ago and it didn’t look like a quick one.
What's happening with Ederson?
Pep Guadiola first said that Ederson was a doubt for today's game, but then started treating him alongside Dias as an important absence.
Reading between the lines, it felt like Ederso could play through his 'niggles' but every time he does play there's a risk it could be more. That pretty much sums up the state of City's season - even the ones who are fit enough to be on the pitch are not at 100 per cent. If Dias is definitely out, which he is, it may be more a game for Ortega anyway.
Could today be the perfect storm for Jack Grealish?
Jack Grealish is back at Villa Park, hoping for his first start back at his spiritual home. In his first year at City he played three minutes off the bench away at Villa, entering to boos but leaving to applause. He was an unused substitute in 2022, and last year he was suspended for accumulated bookings. In fact he has started just two of six possible meetings with Villa since leaving this part of the world for the Etihad.
He isn't guaranteed to start here, though. He is one of many City forwards struggling to impact games and has only started one of the last nine in the Premier League (missing three of those through injury).
But could this be a perfect storm where he gets a rare start back at his former home in the position where he shone here - attacking midfield? City's only win since October came with Grealish at number eight, so there is an argument to play him there again on the very pitch where he produced so much in that free central role.
He hasn't scored in 35 City appearances, dating back to December 2023, so how he would love to break that run today.
Blows keep coming for City
There will be many City fans out there who will not be best pleased with that news, and with good reason - they appeared to be players who could come in and make an instant impact as well as be good for the long term. Guardiola did speak yesterday about the difficulties of signing players in the January window
Chief City writer Simon Bajkowski writes:
The blows just keep on coming for City fans on and off the pitch. Short of their best defender for this game, now they’re finding out that the club aren’t planning to sign either Zubimendi or Bruno Guimaraes in January. Those two players might not have been the perfect solution but they looked more ideal than most.
City not signing duo in January
A bit of unhappy transfer news this morning. City aren't expecting to sign Martin Zubimendi or Bruno Guimaraes in January. Those two were seen as players that could really reignite the season as well as help the team in the long term but City sources have told the Manchester Evening News that a move for either does not look on next month.
The full story is here - but understandable if you really rather wouldn't read any more!
Who lines up in defence?
So Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake are out, Rico Lewis is back from suspension, while John Stones and Manu Akanji could make their returns from injury.
Kyle Walker is out of form (although so are Lewis and Gvardiol despite the latter's goal vs United), so it appears there is no obvious solution at Villa Park. It's hard to see Matheus Nunes start at left-back again after his blunder in the derby.
Guardiola must decide if he wants a fitter defence but one prone to making mistakes in recent matches - or if he wants a stronger back line but one that risks injury to players who have just returned from the treatment table.
John Stones was set to come on vs United before their equaliser so he may have to accellerate his comeback from the start at Villa in Dias' absence. Lewis can replace Nunes - either going to left-back, or returning to the right with Walker in the middle and Gvardiol on the left.
It would be a bigger risk to play both Stones and Akanji, even if that would give one of Walker, Lewis and Gvardiol a much-needed rest.
There is no easy answer.
City's rotten run - will it continue today?
When City lost at Villa Park last season it was their third defeat of the season and their fourth game without a win. At the time, there were questions of crisis, but they bounced back at Luton, slipped up again against Palace.. and then went to win the Club World Cup and returned a different side.
This time, they head to Aston Villa in worse form:
- Oct 30 - Spurs 2-1 City (Carabao Cup)
- Nov 2 - Bournemouth 2-1 City
- Nov 5 - Sporting 4-1 City (Champions League)
- Nov 9 - Brighton 2-1 City
- Nov 23 - City 0-4 Spurs
- Nov 26 - Feyenoord 3-3 City (Champions League)
- Dec 1 - Liverpool 2-0 City
- Dec 4 - City 3-0 Forest
- Dec 7 - Crystal Palace 2-2 City
- Dec 11 - Juventus 2-0 City (Champions League)
- Dec 15 - City 1-2 Man Utd
That's one win in 11, one in seven in the league, and one win in 55 days.
How the Blues would love three points today - but they haven't won here in their last two meetings and the three meetings before that were all won by a single City goal.
Early City team news as Dias joins injury list
It felt too good to be true, didn't it?
We saw Manu Akanji back in training this week which would leave just Nathan Ake on the short-term injury list. But then Guardiola dropped the bombshell that Ruben Dias faces a month on the sidelines after picking up an injury towards the end of the United game.
Oh, and Ederson is a doubt, too.
This is what we know in terms of team news:
- Ruben Dias is the latest player to get injured and will miss 'three to four weeks'.
- Nathan Ake isn't ready yet, along with Rodri and Oscar Bobb.
- Manu Akanji is back in training and could return.
- John Stones and Mateo Kovacic look set to be available too after returning on the bench vs United.
- Ederson is another doubt so Stefan Ortega could start vs Villa.
Good morning!
Hello, and welcome to today's coverage of Manchester City's Premier League clash at Aston Villa.
It's been six days since the Manchester United defeat, giving Pep Guardiola, his players and fans a chance to step back, reassess and reset ahead of the trip to Villa Park.
City are badly out of form, and will hope to find a way back to winning ways just before Christmas - but it won't be easy and the Blues have struggled here in recent seasons.
