Blue chews-daze: Bore, bore, quick-score-score.

There ya go, match report for last Saturday done in just five words.

As one Manchester City fan said just after the game at Goodison Park, if Everton had had anything better in their locker they could well have taken all 3 points.

But they didn’t and not wishing to sound dour; I’ll take boring and not playing particularly well along with 3 points every time at the moment. Job done and we move on.

v Aston Villa

Etihad Stadium

Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:

(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 9/11).

A very fluid 4-2-3-1 / 3-6-1 / 4-6-0:

_________________________________________________

____________________Marmoush____________________

________Grealish______Foden_______McAtee_________

______________Kovacic____________________________

____________________________Gonzalez_____________

O’Reilly_____________________________________Lewis

__________Gvardiol_______________Dias_____________

______________________Ortega_____________________

Subs: Carson, Akanji, Khusanov, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Nunes, Silva, Doku and Savinho.

Stefan continues in goal.

A similar back 4 to our last outing but we might see a rotation of right wing-back once again. I’m going for Nico O’Reilly and Rico on the flanks with Josko and Ruben continuing their partnership in the middle.

A ‘double pivot’ of Nico Gonzalez and Mateo, with Kovacic slightly more advanced is my guess in deep midfield; Jack, Phil and James to come in all behind Omar.

Scott is our reserve stopper; a returning Manuel and Abdukodir are two defensive replacement options waiting for their chance. Midfielders Kevin, Ilkay, Matheus and Bernardo get to sit on the side for the start of the match, having all played most of ‘the 90’ just 3 days earlier; Jeremy and Savinho provide wing options in ‘the 9’.

Notable absences:

- Ederson – Out with a groin / pelvic / hip injury. Unknown return date.

- John Stones – Out with a thigh injury for anything up to 2 weeks, going off the initial assessment and timescale information given. His manager said on 18^th April that John was getting better.

- Nathan Ake – Recovering from a fractured foot, for which he has had surgery and, just like John, his manager said on 18^th April that Nathan was getting better also.

- Vitor Reis – Not selected.

- Rodri – Continues to train as he maintains his long journey back to fitness following an ACL injury last September.

- Oscar Bobb – Not selected.

- Erling Haaland – Back in the gym doing light training as he recovers from an ankle injury he received on 30^th March. Unlikely to make the F.A. Cup on Sunday afternoon but I’m sure he and everyone connected with Manchester City will be hopeful of a return to the matchday squad in time to face Wolves at home in the league on Friday 2^nd May; an 8:00pm (BST) KO.

Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?

Yep. If I’m correct, a fresh three (all English!) behind Marmoush could be a very good thing indeed.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Claudio Echeverri being involved in the matchday squad before the end of the season – an attacking ‘surprise package’ could just be the edge we need in our pursuit of as many points as possible between now and 25^th May.

Result?

Well, I’ve said that I’ll take not playing particularly well and 3 points every time at the moment but we’re gonna have to play a HELL of a lot better on Tuesday night than we did last Saturday afternoon. Anything less than our best – whatever that may be at the moment – and it’ll be 3 points to the Villains for sure.

Results wise, we appear to be hitting some kind of form – L D W D W W in the league shows you that. But I’m all too easily reminded about the first 20 to 30 minutes against Crystal Palace as well as the boring, lacklustre performances against both Everton and Manyoo and it just doesn’t FELL like good form, if that makes any sense.

In contrast, Aston Villa are absolutely flying just at the right time and look to be brimming with confidence, sadly for us.

I desperately want to say that this will be a win for us…but I just can’t.

The best I can give you is that we CAN raise our game when we want to (an in-form Palace found that out) and if the home crowd get behind our lads and make the fixture feel like a semi-final in the Champions League; we could very easily see a raised performance from the men in sky blue and white (and navy) once again.

I’m going for us to do just that 👍…and I’m going for a draw, which won’t be such a bad result all things considered, I don’t think.

Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:

Prediction: Win

Result: Won

(Pre-match blog posting from that game)

Expected weather conditions during the game: Decent and nothing much to report. 13C and dry with just a light, southerly breeze. 🧥🧣🥧🍺⚽