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Manchester City take on Aston Villa on Saturday evening, and victory for the blues will take them to the Premier League summit, for at least 24 hours. That said, they first have to navigate past a Villa side that are languishing at the wrong end of the table.
While the blues were busy thumping Forest, Arsenal were making hard work of getting past the Midlands side to keep their 100% record going. But, with Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez in excellent form and given City’s great record at Villa Park, another win is hopefully on the cards.
We say City have a great record, but how good is it really? Here’s the stats.
When we say great…
The blues have lost six times at Villa in their last 32 visits to Villa Park, so yes, they have a great record. From that, they have won 16 on Villa soil, including five straight league and cup wins, with six out of the last seven matches being won by the blues. Only a 0-0 draw in November 2015 spoils a perfect winning run. That is much better than when the teams first began facing each other, way back in 1899. The first forty matches played at Villa saw just five wins for City, and one of those was in the FA Cup.
The next 21 games didn’t exactly go to plan either, with City winning just three and losing 10. It’s safe to say that blues fans prefer the current run of six defeats and 16 wins. This means the blues have won half of the games they have played since a 3-0 League Cup defeat in November 1983. Not a bad little run.
Another 2-1?
2-1 is one of the more popular scorelines between these two sides at Villa Park. That’s the outcomes of fifteen matches, with City winning the last three by that scoreline. The first ever match between the two also ended 2-1 but to Villa. 13 matches have ended 1-0, while 1-1 (11) and 2-2 (6) are other common scores between them.
City have scored three or more goals on six occasions, but Villa have gone a little to town with that stat. The homes side have scored three or more in this fixture an incredible 21 times in their history, however, the last time they achieved this was September 2013, when they beat the blues 3-2. City had lead twice, but to goals in three minutes won the points for Villa.
City have finished with four goals twice, five goals once and six goals once, while Villa have finished the match with four goals 6 times, five goals twice and seven goals once.
Fancy a bit of streaking?
City current run of seven games unbeaten is the longest run they have gone against Villa without defeat, and the five straight wins is the longest winning streak. By comparison, Villa haven’ won more than one successive match at home to the blues since they won back-to-back 3-1 victories in December 1991 and April 1993. Their longest unbeaten run against City is 10 matches, achieved between April 1931 and December 1949. Villa won six and drew four, but they longest winning run came a few years earlier. Between September 1920 and December 1928, Villa beat City in seven consecutive matches, notching 21 goals to City’s three.
Big wins for both
City’s 6-1 win at newly promoted Villa in January 2020 eclipsed their 5-1 win in April 1991. Villa though, had to go one better again, and their 7-1 win in December 1900, only their second league meeting, remains their biggest win against City, although they have recorded two 5-1 wins since then.
Overall, City have scored 108 goals and kept 28 clean sheets. Villa have knocked in 144 goals and prevented City from scoring on 22 occasions. There have been just six goalless draws between the two at Villa Park.
And for the superstitious
We know you superstitious kind love the sort of stats that make you watch the match from between your fingers while hiding behind the sofa, so if you are superstitious, look away now. Seriously, read on at your own peril.
Okay, you can’t say you weren’t warned. Here goes…
City have visited Villa Park six times in the month of September and have never won any. In fact, they have drawn one and lost five. If that isn’t bad enough, three of those wins came on 3rd September.
3rd September 1921 – Villa 2-0 City
3rd September 1923 – Villa 4-0 City
3rd September 1966 – Villa 3-0 City
We need to break the 3rd of September curse!!!