Aston Villa v Man City: Citizens can cruise to three points

Manchester City are big 8/15 favourites to see off Aston Villa this Monday evening – and it’s hard to see any other outcome at Villa Park.

Villa remain rooted in the relegation zone and a game against the defending champions is hardly likely to provide any relief for the beleaguered Villa faithful.

Villa have just one victory under their belt in 2013 – a scrappy 2-1 victory over West Ham United nearly a month ago – and were battered 5-0 by the Citizens earlier in the season.

Aston Villa have won just one home game against a team currently in the top half of the Premier League table (a 2-0 win over Swansea) and they are out at 9/2 to double that total against City.

While there has been plenty of doom and gloom surrounding City’s rather lacklustre defence of their title, they are still an infinitely better team than Aston Villa and should have no problem sweeping them aside.

After three games without a win, City have now won their last two matches, with their 2-0 victory against Chelsea looking particularly impressive.

Meanwhile, City have the second best away defence in the division, while Villa have the second worst home attack.

It’s not a combination that promises goals for Villa and, with City conceding just one goal in their five games against teams currently in the Premier League bottom four, backing City to win this to nil looks a tempting proposition at a fairly respectable 13/8.

If Villa are to score, then Christian Benteke looks the prime candidate and should he score first or last at Villa Park, all losing stakes on losing first scorer bets will be refunded as a free bet.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.