The longer Manchester City stay perfect this season, the more decline will see in interest for the Premier League. Ever since the league itself found Man City guilty on 115 charges of breaching financial rules, earlier this month, more and more football fans have questioned the integrity of the competition. And with the integrity questioned, the competition loses meaning, and once that meaning is lost, interest fades. The fact that City are unblemished so far this season only exacerbates the problem. We’ll see if Aston Villa can do anything about that on Saturday, but if they’re going to take points against City, they’ll have to maybe do it without Johan Manzambi, their joint top scorer and joint top assist man in league play.
Manchester City at Aston Villa FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday, October 24, 12:30pm, Villa Park, Birmingham, UK
Team News for Both Sides: Man City Aston Villa
PL Position: Man City 1st, 21 pts Aston Villa 12th, 8 pts
Premier League Form: Man City LLWDL Aston Villa DLWDW
Google Result Probability: Man City 58% Aston Villa 20% Draw 22%
Aston Villa Team News
Manzambi missed out on yesterday’s 3-1 Champions League win over Viking due to a calf injury, and manager Unai Emery has indicated that the Swiss midfielder’s availability for Saturday is still unresolved. Emery has maintained that the injury to Manzambi is not serious though, so we’ll see. He has scored two goals and registered two assists in three league starts this season.
Elsewhere we now have a timeline for Aaron Wan-Bissaka, and his hamstring injury.
“Aaron has an injury as well, more or less we expect three or four weeks,” Emery said on Tuesday. He’ll likely be out until after the November internationals. Meanwhile Modou Keba Cisse faces a late fitness test here in order to make the squad.
And then finally, Matteo Ruggeri and Amadou Onana remain sidelined this weekend.
Again, people are checking out on the Premier League right now, and the longer we wait until learning what the sanctions will be on City, the worse things will get. The league is not doing itself any favors here.
Again having City sitting top of the table only puts this problem on steroids. If Villa can pull of the upset here, it would be deemed by neutrals/supporters of other clubs as a massive win.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.