Man City vs Aston Villa Betting Analysis

MAN CITY V ASTON VILLA Tough, resilient, and difficult to breakdown are not words you'd usually associate with Man City, but that's what they've become under Stuart Pearce, and the blues can take another big step towards European football by seeing off a hit and miss Aston Villa side on Monday night. If it wasn't for Robbie Fowler's missed penalty at home to Middlesbrough in the last game of last season, the Citizens would have been enjoying that honour this campaign. However, it wasn't to be, and one can only admire the way 'Psycho' has got his players to bounce back from that disappointment to make their best ever start to a Premiership campaign this time round. The Citizens occupy a healthy eighth spot in the league, and have already won three of their five fixtures at Eastlands, with the only blip coming at home to Bolton last month - a game they dominated throughout, hitting the woodwork on numerous occasions, before the Trotters stole the points with a last minute penalty. Convincing wins over Everton and West Ham have been achieved since then though, and much of the credit for those victories has to go to the lively front pairing of Andy Cole and Darius Vassell, who have both been excellent since joining Pearce's squad in the summer. A few eyebrows were raised when City snapped up Cole from Fulham, but he's looked revitalised under Pearce, bagging four league goals so far, while the same can be said of Vassell, who will no doubt be desperate to prove a point against the club who offloaded him in the summer. Both will surely fancy taking on a Villa defence that has leaked 16 goals in ten league games, and who continue to look shaky with the likes of Wilfred Bouma, Gary Cahill and Martin Laursen still on the Villa Park injury list. Villa may have seen off bitter rivals Birmingham in their last away game, but instead of taking confidence from the 1-0 win at St Andrews, David O'Leary's side came crashing back down to earth last week, losing 2-0 at home to surprise package Wigan Athletic. That result certainly didn't rest well with the Villa faithful, and it was no surprise to see the bookies cut O'Leary's price for the next Premiership manager to get the boot. Villa have only scored three league goals away from home all season, and without the injured Milan Baros, it's going to be difficult for Kevin Phillips and co to get any change from Man City's improving rearguard. City completed the double over Villa last season, and at odds of 10/11, they look a safe bet to show their dominance again on Monday night.