Mancini to deal with Villains

Premiership football returns to England this weekend with City hosting Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium.

City will be keep to continue their record of home results in recent seasons against the Midlands side which has seen City win nine from the last ten home fixtures. Last season, if you remember, City dominated Villa by a score of 4-0, with Balotelli netting a hattrick, although two came from the penalty spot.

Previous to that, the last time City had beaten Villa by such a scoreline was on September 14th 2003 when City beat Villa 4-1, this time Anelka was the hattrick hero and again two of them came from the penalty spot.

Citys all time League record against Villa is as follows, in the 144 games played so far City have won 55 of them.

Villa are only slightly behind City though winning 51 and obviously the other 38 remaining games were ties. Despite the good record at home against Villa you only have to go back four and a half years for the last time they took the spoils in Manchester, winning 2-0 in the dissapointing 2006/07 season.

Other large victories actually came away from Manchester with City beating Villa 4-1 on August 24 1977, 4-1. In that game Dennis Tueart was our hattrick hero but David White upstaged him just over a dozen years later as he scored four in Citys 5-1 win in the April of 1991.

City - Villa games though have been significant for other reasons other than results though. In 1979 City lost 3-2 at home in what would be Colin Bells last game in sky blue and only a few years before that the fixture saw for only the third time City use an Iron fence to seperate supporters. The previous two times were the games against United and Leeds.  

Glyn Pardoe had set the League record of being the youngest player aged 15 years and 314 days and made his second start against Villa three days later, aged 15 years and 317 days! However the most interesting bit of history I think came at the end of the 1958/59 season.

City played Villa in the penultimate game and only managed a draw.

This meant that the last game could see either one relegated. Villa had a better goal average and kicked off against West Brom 15 minutes before City. With two minutes left Villa were winning, and despite City also winning their game it would mean that City would be relegated.

West Brom scored an equalising goal with two minutes left to keep City up and send Villa down. Villas manager at the time? Joe Mercer. He managed to get Villa back to the top flight after a couple of seasons but then left to start City on what would be their most succesful period in history to date.

As for Saturdays game, it could see the return of some City heros of the past to the Etihad Stadium, this time in Claret with Villa now boasting Ireland, Dunne and Shay Given in their ranks. Last time out Villa beat Wigan 2-0 which saw the Midland side push up the table to seventh.

City, as you remember downed Blackburn 4-0 at Ewood Park on the back of the Carlos Tevez affair to reclaim joint top spot with United.

It seems that all the International players came through pretty much unscathed and, providing at least one of either Balotelli and Aguero are back to full fitness I think City will continue on their runs and hand Aston Villa what will be their first defeat of the season.

Speaking of Villans, Carlos Tevez also returns to England to find out the results of his actions. Watch this space as news breaks.

PA Cityboy