Manchester City will welcome a reinforced Aston Villa to the Academy Stadium on Saturday (21 January) as they aim to increase their unbeaten run to 13 games in all competitions.
Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Rachel Daly are the Women’s Super League’s leading scorers with nine goals each with the two sides having last met in September’s season-opening clash at Villa Park, The seven-goal thriller saw the home side get their first WSL win over the Sky Blues, in a 4-3 win where the lead swapped hands twice.
Alisha Lehmann got an early lead which was doubled by Daly 32 minutes in before Laura Coombs pulled one back but Villa went into the half leading two goals to one. Shaw and Coombs found the net again to steal the lead 3-2 10 minutes after the restart but Villas’ Kenza Dali brought it back equal by the hour mark capped off by Daly who netted the winner with 14 minutes left on the clock, her debut for the club on her return to the WSL.
After a slow start to the season, Manchester City have turned it around and are now on an unbeaten streak of 12 games in all competitions (11 wins and one draw). Yet despite the record, manager Gareth Taylor says there's room for improvement: “We’ve been pretty frugal on goals conceded and we’ll certainly look at that, we will also look at scoring goals and make sure we’re not reliant on Bunny Shaw to be the provider of goals for us.”
They go into the weekend after a busy first week back in action with two back-to-back wins; beating West Ham 1-0 away which they followed with a narrow 1-0 win over Leicester in the Continental Cup on Wednesday, Bunny Shaw and Filippa Angeldahl on the scoresheet to seal three points a piece.
While Sunday's visitors are reaping the rewards of their January signings - which was reflected in their 2-1 win over Tottenham at the weekend - Carla Ward’s midfield reinforcements in Manchester United’s Lucy Staniforth and Arsenal’s Jordan Nobbs will challenge City’s regulars Coombs, Yui Hasegawa and Denya Castellanos in the middle of the park as Taylor made no changes to his roster following a hectic summer.
Taylor said: “They’ve changed a lot, they’ve added to their roster and again in January as well signing some experience and quality as well so no surprises that they’ve done okay but I'm looking forward to the home advantage.
“They’re going to be quite direct, they try to play long balls, get around the second balls as well and play through Daley a lot. They’re quite aggressive with their pressing. We’ve identified where it is we can work on in training and set ourselves up nicely.”
Injury concerns following the Christmas break for Kerstin Casparij and Hayley Raso have eased after the right-back and attacker featured in their midweek clash. However defender Demi Stokes remains in question, Taylor said: “Demi’s probably just going to miss out, she's going to take slightly longer than we anticipated but outside of Demi, everyone else is looking good.”
Ahead of the fixture, City are sitting comfortably in fourth place, seven points clear of Everton, West Ham and Villa who are all on 15 points a piece. The Villans are seventh due to goal difference but have a game in hand over the East London side.
Manchester City vs Aston Villa kicks off at 11:30 AM on Saturday at the Academy Stadium and is available to watch via Sky Sports Premier League.
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