FanPost

City Need To Be Ruthless Citizens Against Villians

History

Aston Villa have always been linked with Manchester City since that infamous defeat back on April 29th 1905. It was the final match of the season and was highly controversial because of allegations of match fixing on City's part and player violence on Villas side caused the FA to investigate. Financial irregularities were uncovered and City went from being the first Manchester side to lift the FA Cup and only points away from being the first to lift the title to becoming a shell of a club. Directors and players were banned and moved on.

In the second to last game of the 1958-59 season we hosted Villa and with both sides facing relegation the 0-0 scoreline did neither any favours. In the final game City were beating Leicester by a score of 3-1 which wasn't good enough as Villa were also winning. Then in the last few minutes West Brom equalised against Villa to send the Midlanders down and save City, Villa were managed by Joe Mercer at the time.

The last win that City enjoyed at Villa park in the League before last season was back on November 29th 2006 when Vassell, Barton and Distin scored to give us a 3-1 victory. Last season we didn't even get on the scoresheet and came away having been beaten by the single goal.

That said we have won big away from home this season and at Villa Park City have also enjoyed similar scorelines in the past. 1991 saw David White score four times as City romped home to a 5-1 win and fourteen years before that in 1977 Dennis Tueart scored a hattrick in a 4-1 win. Also though we have been on the wrong end of a hiding away at Villa. The most recent being the openingseason game for the 2008-09 season where despite goals from Elano and Corluka we would lose 4-2. December 3rd 1960 we would lose 5-1 with Denis Law scoring our goal in his first spell with us. In fact his last two goals for City in that first spell came against Villa later that season this time in a 4-1 City win. However the worst defeat came over a century ago on December 9th 1900 with that game ending in a 7-1 defeat for newly promoted City.

Willie Donachies last game for City was against Villa in a 2-2 draw back in 1980 and Bell and Asa Hartford also played their final games for City against Villa opposition a year earlier. More recently, crowd favorite Shaun Wright Phillips scored his last goal for City in his first spell with the club in an away win in 2005. It also marks firsts and none more important than that of Ernest Mangnall whose first official game in charge of Manchester City was a 1-0 victory at home to Villa. It was Mangnall who had only just watched his new side beat his old side 1-0 and celebrated, the United manager had already helped out a struggling City side who were still rebuilding after the 1905 controversy. He had been the first manager to bring a trophy to United, winning the FA Cup with ex City players. He made City an attractive team to watch and they were regarded as the top team in Manchester and even had a game called off in 1913 because if overcrowding. He was also instrumental in our move to Maine Road.

Saturdays Game

To Saturdays game though and Manchester City have met Aston Villa in the League 136 times with our first taking place on October 21st 1899, a game we lost 2-1. Since then though we have gone on to get the upper hand in the spread of results though and our win total now stands at 57 with Villa slightly behind us on 52.

It was about this time last season that we hosted and beat Aston Villa by a 4-1 scoreline and certainly a similar outcome for us on Saturday would certainly help with what has been a disjointed start to the season.

Villa haven't been doing all that well so far this season with the latest result seeing them yield a two goal lead to our neighbors, United. That said they have been slightly more impressive away from home, winning three of their last five away games in all competitions, the first of those five was knocking us out of the League Cup in September.