Key events
“There are no coincidences in life,” writes Krishnamoorthy V. “Your mention of The Shining in the preamble connects to The Overlook Hotel. Is it a reference to what the Premier League will do in its assessment of City’s appeal?”
You are the caretaker.
Team news: Foden back on the bench
Unai Emery and Enzo Maresca continue their policy of rotation, rotation, rotation. Matty Cash, Ian Maatsen, Boubacar Kamara and Johan Manzambi return to the Villa team in place of Tyrone Mings, Ibrahim Mbaye, Ross Barkley and Emi Buendia.
Phil Foden, who scored a hat-trick against AEK in the week, is back on the City bench. Marc Guehi, Iliman Ndiaye, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland come into the team; the other players to drop out are Rico Lewis, Allan and Floyd Samba.
Aston Villa (4-2-3-1) Suzuki; Cash, Lindelof, Torres, Maatsen; Kamara, Joao Gomes; Alysson, Manzambi, McGinn; Jackson.
Subs: Bizot, Mings, Barkley, Buendia, Mbaye, Bogarde, Goretzka, Madjo, Hemmings.
Man City (4-2-3-1) Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol; Anderson, Fernandez; Ndiaye, Cherki, Doku; Haaland.
Subs: Rulli, Kovacic, Ait Nouri, Vitor Reis, Bouaddi, O’Reilly, Foden, McAidoo, Lewis.
Referee Peter Bankes (Merseyside)
Bayern Munich say their head coach Vincent Kompany, who was taken to hospital after collapsing during training on Friday, will be absent for “weeks rather than days”. Kompany is in a stable condition in hospital.
You can read about that, and all the rest of the day’s fitba news, on our matchday live blog.
It was five months ago but it feels a lot longer. When these two sides met in May to finish the season, the contest doubled as Pep Guardiola’s leaving party after 10 years in the job and twice as many trophies, an era now laden with asterisks. It must be surreal for Aston Villa supporters, too. Their 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium, inspired by two goals from Ollie Watkins to complete a league double over City, came only four days after their Europa League triumph in Istanbul, where Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Emi Buendía were the scorers.
Buendía is the only one left in claret and blue as Unai Emery builds a new side, one that has picked up in form after a single point from their first four league games. City, meanwhile, are thriving on the pitch: victory would make them just the third side to win their first eight games of a Premier League season.
Preamble
You remember Manchester City, don’t you? They made one or two headlines earlier in the month, but have since been kept off the back pages by a neighbouring circus.
Since the weird (and wonderful, if you’re a City fan) win at Anfield, Enzo Maresca’s team have played three games, all at home. They were undressed by PSG, held off Ipswich last weekend and hammered AEK on Tuesday. Oh, and Elliot Anderson made the James Bond shortlist.
City are top of the Premier League with a perfect record of seven wins from seven. But like life, The Shining and those dreams in which all your teeth fall out, nobody really knows what it means. City are on 21 points, but for all we know it could effectively be -29. Yes, I have just pulled that number from my fundament. No, I don’t have any inside knowledge.
The only thing the City players – who, lest we forget, had nowt to do with the 115 charges – can win football matches and see where it takes them.
Today’s will be tougher than most. Unai Emery has somehow squashed a year of transition into a month. Villa lost six of their Europa League-winning XI in the summer and started the season terribly. But they have won five of the last six games and are playing with a rhythm that belies the summer rebuild. On recent evidence, losing all those great players really was just a flesh wound.
Kick off 12.30pm.
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