Aston Villa v Man City: Unai Emery's team aim to start key Christmas period with statement win

The chances of Guardiola offering a similar statement should they repeat the feat on Saturday is remote. Just as then, a Villa victory would send them above the champions in the table, except this time both clubs find themselves further adrift of the summit than 12 months ago.

For the first time since Guardiola’s debut season in England, City do not have the look of serious title challengers. Beaten in eight of their last 11 matches, a record which would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago, they will arrive at Villa Park desperate for a result to restore any kind of momentum to their flagging campaign.

Yet this is also a big game for Villa at the start of what looks, at least on paper, a crucial Christmas period which pitches them against three opponents currently sat around them in the heavily congested table. A trip to Newcastle and a home fixture against Brighton follow before 2024 the year is out.

Beating City would not deliver the same kind of statement as a year ago, when the 1-0 victory and more importantly the performance had the feel of a club re-announcing itself as a serious Premier League force. Yet it might help persuade you a little more Emery’s men have the capability of again challenging for European football and a top-five finish. 

So far, Villa have simply been too inconsistent to be convincing and they have struggled against the teams Emery so often lists as bigger “contenders” for Europe than his own. Only one of their seven league wins has come against a team currently in the top half and for all City’s struggles, beating them would still represent their best victory so far of the campaign.

Reasons for Villa’s stumbles over the past two months are several. It is hard to escape the sense they have found it hard to juggle the demands of the Champions League and domestic competition. Last Saturday’s defeat at Nottingham Forest was their third straight loss in matches immediately following European midweeks and while Emery has argued his team faced a similarly tough schedule last term, games in the Conference League were nowhere near so intense as in the continent’s elite competition.

There is still time to find consistency and the messaging from Emery and his backroom team has centred around the need for calm and perspective. This week is the first Villa have had without a midweek fixture since August. Not since the build-up to the 2-1 win at Leicester at the end of that month will Emery have had so many consecutive days on the training pitch with his players. On the flip side, the same applies to City and Pep Guardiola.    

It makes for an intriguing contest. In a league season which may need a spark, beating the champions would still represent a significant scalp.