Aston Villa vs Manchester City match
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Manchester City, top with 21 points from seven wins, visit 12th-placed Aston Villa in the Premier League.
City have not won at Villa Park in four visits.
Background
Manchester City are managed by Enzo Maresca, who took charge in June, and are led up front by Erling Haaland, the Premier League's leading scorer with eight goals this season. Aston Villa are managed by Unai Emery. City arrive with a perfect league record — seven wins from seven — while Villa sit 12th, though Villa are unbeaten in seven games across all competitions and are coming off a 3-1 Champions League win over Viking. The match is at Villa Park in Birmingham.
How it unfolded
- Oct 2, 2026Aston Villa beat Sevilla 3-1.
- Oct 11, 2026Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0.
- Oct 14, 2026Aston Villa beat Fenerbahçe 6-0, while Paris Saint-Germain beat Enzo Maresca's Manchester City 4-2 in the Champions League.
- Oct 17, 2026Villa beat Newcastle United 1-0; City beat Ipswich Town 3-2, with Phil Foden scoring his first goal in 10 months.
- Oct 20, 2026Manchester City beat AEK Athens 5-1 in the Champions League, Foden scoring a hat-trick.
- Oct 21, 2026Aston Villa beat Viking 3-1 on Matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League league phase.
- Oct 24, 2026Aston Villa host Manchester City at Villa Park at 12:30pm BST (7:30am ET). City lead the league with 21 points from seven matches; Villa are 12th with eight points.
Who’s saying what
- Analysts
- Betting odds make Manchester City the favorite, with normalized probabilities of 58.8% for City, 18.6% for Villa and 22.6% for a draw.
- Caution
- City have not won in their last four matches at Villa Park, losing the last three, with their last win there in December 2021.
- Support
- Villa have won three of the last four meetings and outscored City 6-4 in that span.
- Official
- City boss Enzo Maresca said he expects a "very tough" game at Villa Park.
Still unverified
Predicted starting lineups differ between sources: Heavy and NJ.com list different Villa and City XIs. Squawka reports City have no fresh fitness concerns, while other sources list Semenyo, O'Reilly, Kovacic and Nunes as out or doubtful. Al Jazeera gives the match date as "Saturday, October 22" while other sources give Saturday, October 24.