Two in-form sides meet at Villa Park on Sunday. We look ahead to the Premier League clash with our Aston Villa vs Manchester City prediction and preview.
Aston Villa vs Manchester City: The Key Stats
Manchester City overcame Aston Villa in 42.7% of pre-match simulations by the Opta supercomputer.
Erling Haaland has scored in 12 successive games for club and country.
Man City have won more points in the Premier League than any other side since the start of April.
Manchester City will hope Erling Haaland continues to deliver the goods when they meet a resurgent Aston Villa for an enticing Premier League clash on Sunday.
Norwegian talisman Haaland has been in freakish form of late, scoring in 12 consecutive games for club and country after again finding the net in Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Villarreal in the UEFA Champions League.
His goalscoring heroics have helped Pep Guardiola’s side up to second in the table. They are three points behind early leaders Arsenal, who Haaland also scored against in a 1-1 draw last month.
Indeed, the City striker has scored in each of his last five away Premier League appearances, including the final game last season at Fulham. The only player to score in more consecutive away games for the club is Sergio Agüero, who found the net seven times in a row between March and August 2017.
Haaland has also accounted for five of City’s seven away league goals across all four trips in 2025-26, having scored twice against Wolves before strikes against Brighton & Hove Albion, Arsenal and Brentford.
He will now be targeting the feats of Thierry Henry in 2001-02 for Arsenal, Mohamed Salah in 2021-22 for Liverpool and Jarrod Bowen in 2023-24 for West Ham United, the only players in Premier League history to score in each of their respective teams’ first five away games to start a season.
Haaland Goals for Man City in 2025-26
Regardless of Haaland’s deadly form, City have also improved at the other end of the pitch. They have kept more clean sheets in the Premier League than any other side (12), since their 5-1 defeat at Arsenal last February, with Gianluigi Donnarumma fitting in well as Ederson’s replacement in goal this season.
Only Arsenal can match City for goals conceded per game (both 15 in 22 games, 0.68) in the same period, helping Guardiola’s side continue a strong run of form since the back end of last season.
City have won more points in the competition than any other team since the start of April (39 – W12 D3 L2), only conceding the first goal in two games during that stretch. They have also opened the scoring in their last six matches, their best streak since a run of eight between April and August 2024.
Sunday could still prove a tough test against Villa, though their five-game winning run across all competitions was ended by Thursday’s 2-1 loss against Go Ahead Eagles in the UEFA Europa League. Evann Guessand opened the scoring early on for the visitors, only to be hit by two goals in response by the Dutch side before Emiliano Buendía missed a penalty that would have made it 2-2.
Go Ahead Eagles 2-1 Aston Villa
Villa have won each of their last three Premier League outings, having previously failed to win any of their first five matches (D3 L2) to start their 2025-26 campaign. The only team in top-flight history to have a five-game winless start before winning their next four games was Preston North End in 1936-37.
Unai Emery’s side claimed an impressive 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur last time out in the league, falling behind to Rodrigo Bentancur’s early opener before Morgan Rogers levelled with his first top-flight goal this campaign. Buendía stepped off the bench to score the winner, capping a lovely move between Matty Cash and Lucas Digne by firing into the bottom-left corner with just 13 minutes remaining.
Emery may avoid the temptation to reward Buendía’s fine finish with a start, given no player in the Premier League this season has more goals and assists combined as a substitute than his three (2 goals, 1 assist).
The Argentinian will hope Thursday’s spot-kick failure does not impact his starting chances, though, and will be looking to score in consecutive Premier League appearances for the very first time on Sunday.
Villa have now won their last two Premier League games when they have conceded the first goal, also beating Fulham 3-1. Since Emery’s first game at the club in November 2022, only Sunday’s opponent, Guardiola (14), has more wins after conceding first than Emery (11).
Emery will have a clear target to improve on at the back, considering five of the last seven Premier League goals that Villa have conceded have come via set-pieces (1 x penalty, 1 x throw, 3 x corners).
They have conceded from a corner in their last three games, while the last side to concede from a corner in four games in a row was Newcastle United in April/May 2024. Villa last did so in November/December 2010.
As for team news, Villa will be without Youri Tielemans (leg injury), while City are likely to still be missing Rodri (thigh) and Abdukodir Khusanov (ankle).
Aston Villa vs Manchester City Head-to-Head
Aston Villa have won their last two home league games against Manchester City. They have not managed more consecutive wins against their visitors since a five-match run between 1960 and 1975.
Jhon Durán and Rogers scored in this exact fixture last season, with Phil Foden‘s stoppage-time goal a late consolation in a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park in December.
However, City have won 31 games and scored 101 goals against Villa in the Premier League – only against Newcastle (32 wins, 106 goals) have they done so more.
Aston Villa vs Manchester City Prediction
The Opta supercomputer slightly favoured an away win as Manchester City triumphed in 42.7% of 10,000 pre-match simulations.
Aston Villa were still afforded a chunky 31.9% chance of victory, while the draw came in at 25.4%.
Aston Villa vs Manchester City Predictions
Aston Villa vs Manchester City Predicted Lineups
Aston Villa: Emiliano Martínez, Matty Cash, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, Ian Maatsen, Boubacar Kamara, Amadou Onana, Evann Guessand, Morgan Rogers, John McGinn, Ollie Watkins.
Head coach: Unai Emery
Manchester City: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, Nathan Aké, Nico O’Reilly, Rico Lewis, Savinho, Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Jérémy Doku, Erling Haaland.
Head coach: Pep Guardiola
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 10,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off this weekend, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Premier League Stats Opta
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