Manchester City and Aston Villa lock horns in a key clash in the race for Champions League qualification on Tuesday at 8pm (UK time).
Pep Guardiola’s men currently sit fourth, but have just a one-point gap over Tuesday’s opponents, despite Villa being down in seventh.
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Manchester City predicted line-up vs Aston Villa
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Ortega; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Gonzalez, Kovacic; Savinho, De Bruyne, Silva; Marmoush.
After a difficult season, Man City have now lost just one of their last nine matches across all competitions, while in the Premier League, they’ve won three and drawn one of their last four, with three clean sheets and nine goals scored.
That’s lifted City into fourth place, just a point off third, but only a point clear of seventh, with the race for Champions League football agonisingly close between five teams looking to fill the last three spots.
Although City have an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest to consider on Sunday, they simply cannot afford to slip up in such an important match, so Pep Guardiola will almost certainly field his strongest side here, with the likes of Ruben Dias, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva starting for the second time in four days.
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Man City team news vs Aston Villa
Although Guardiola will go as strong as he can, he is still dealing with a sizeable injury list.
Ederson is a major doubt and after an excellent showing against Everton, Stefan Ortega should continue between the sticks. Just in front, John Stones and Nathan Ake are two key defenders out until next month.
Rodri, of course, is out for the season, while Erling Haaland won’t return until the middle of May, though Omar Marmoush has been performing well with four goals in his last six games across all competitions.
Guardiola ‘grateful’ to wonderkid Nico O’Reilly
While Man City’s injury crisis has caused endless headaches for Guardiola, it has provided an excellent opportunity for another local lad in Nico O’Reilly, and how he has taken it.
Just 20 years old, the attacking midfielder has had to fill in at left-back over the last month with Josko Gvardiol plugging City’s hole at centre-back. But O’Reilly hasn’t missed a beat.
The youngster changed the game from the bench in the FA Cup against Bournemouth, providing two assists as City came from behind to beat Bournemouth 2-1. More recently, O’Reilly has scored in each of his past two games, including opening the scoring in the 84th minute in a 2-0 win over Everton after the Toffees had given City a serious examination.
Nico O'Reilly's game by numbers vs. Everton:
38/42 passes completed
7x possession won
6 duels won
4 clearances
3/3 take-ons completed
1 chance created
1 shot
1 goalGoals in back-to-back Premier League games. 👏 pic.twitter.com/oIzBMZRQ4h
— Squawka (@Squawka) April 19, 2025
Guardiola was keen to sing the praises of O’Reilly after the full-time whistle at Goodison Park.
“He’s not really a left-back,” Guardiola told BBC Match of the Day. “I would say all of our left-backs score, Josko Gvardiol before and now Nico. He is an attacking midfielder.
“We have passes, passes and passes and then we can arrive brilliantly into that position. He has arrived from the academy and is helping us a lot. I am more than grateful. He is taking his opportunity.”
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