BREAKING

Match Preview: Villa vs. Man City (FA Cup 4th Round) – New signings on show?

Ah…about those new signings…[Spoiler] we haven’t got any! 

There is a funny air about this fixture, indeed, a very odd air around the club as a whole. In a league campaign as horrendous as ours has been, there have still been surprises.  For one thing, securing a draw against City in the league must count as one of them.

Further is the 5 game unbeaten run we are on.  As toothless as we are going forward, at least the ability to defend is slowly returning.  However, fewer sterner tests will present themselves than City, albeit minus De Bruyne for their visit.

City are a potent force in football these days and are out for silverware.  They will be roared on by thousands of travelling fans; hopefully we can muster some fight on the terraces as well as on the pitch.

But what of our chances?

We can only persevere with using Gil as our creative outlet, hope Veretout can step up & that Kozak can locate his shooting boots.  Beyond that is a big call with the disappointing Grealish who played in the U21′s victory at Wolves midweek.

If we can force anything upon the game it will be through frustrating the advances of Toure and co.  No mean feat, but we did somehow manage it at our lowest ebb.

Jordan Ayew remains our only truly hidden gem and is the player you would circle to cause an upset.  He has grown in stature in recent weeks and has the advantage of being largely an unknown quantity to opposition defences.  Villa must do more to exploit this.

Sadly, we have no new faces to raise our spirits or even to give a run out.  Regardless of what you might think about our ability to attract a player or bear the cost, the fact is that we have no one.  It’s all very resigned to an inevitable fate.

Predictions:

Villa to win 1-0. Kozak to score.  Am I insane?  Yes.