For Manchester City, their players, coaches and staff, there is no other choice but to keep on as if it’s business as usual. Obviously, it is anything but business as usual, but what else can you do? Interest in the Premier League has been dropping ever since the verdict was announced, and the longer Man City keep winning, and remain in first place, the more people will get turned off frome the league. Those are not City’s problems. The league needs to figure that out for itself. For manager Enzo Maresca and his squad, the focus is on beating Aston Villa this weekend, and for the City medical/training staff, the focus is on Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes.
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
Premier League Position: Man City 1st, 21 pts Aston Villa 12th, 8 pts
Premier League Man City LLWDL Aston Villa DLWDW
Google Result Probability: Man City 58% Aston Villa 20% Draw 22%
Man City Team News
Again, all they can do is just try to get/stay fit, and try to win as many games as possible. They are all already everyone else’s villain, and understandably so. And the more they win, the more detested they will be. I’m sure they all know this, so without any further adio, the team news.
O’Reilly (lower back), Kovacic (unspecified) and Nunes (undisclosed) all face late fitness tests in order to be cleared for selection for this match.
“Yeah, we have a session this afternoon,” Maresca said earlier today. “They can be all of them available or not. In terms of still doubt, yesterday, they were all improving, and we see this afternoon.”
Meanwhile we also have a timeline for Semenyo to return, and it will likely be around the same time that the festive fixtures start.
“It will be eight weeks,” Maresca said earlier this week, in reference to the forward’s knee injury. “So when he is back in December, it will be like a new player. Not muscular. To lose Antoine, or any player, is not good.”
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.