Manchester City task made harder with Rodri and Grealish suspensions
Manchester City will travel to Villa Park without midfielders Rodri and Jack Grealish.
Both players received their fifth yellow cards of the season at the weekend, earning them an unfortunate one-match ban ahead of a tricky trip to Birmingham for their clash with Aston Villa.
Villa are currently in fourth place on the log, with only one point separating them and Manchester City, who are in third. The Birmingham-based club have achieved this feat by winning all their games at Villa Park. This makes their clash with Manchester City who are struggling for consistency at the moment, very tricky for the defending champions.
City is also winless in three straight Premier League games. In hindsight, the three games have been against the traditional top six sides of the league and happen to be their toughest games so far this season. What they did not account for, however, is Villa rising to become a potential threat to their title defence.
This challenge has now been made tougher by the confirmed absences of Rodri and Grealish, two players who have been important for Pep Guardiola this season.
The Spaniard has missed a couple of games already due to a red card. City struggled glaringly in those games as the control which he brought to the midfield was missing. Grealish has not been as impactful, but having him as an option has helped Pep Guardiola throw a spanner in the works of a number of teams thanks to the English midfielder's ability.
What will irk Guardiola going into the Villa game on Wednesday is the fact that the yellow cards that led to both their suspensions were avoidable.
Man City hosted Tottenham Hotspur over the weekend in a thrilling game of football. As it is with clashes of such magnitude, they were fiery and had refereeing controversies.
Rodri received a yellow card when he committed a silly foul in the first half during a tough midfield contest. Grealish’s one was for dissent in the latter stages of the game. He kicked the ball away in annoyance after he was stopped by the whistle while he was through on goal because of the referee's decision to take away City’s advantage after an earlier foul on Erling Haaland.
Guardiola will also be without Jeremy Doku, who limped out of the game in the first half.
It remains to be seen how the Spaniard intends to replace these key players as their top four chances look worse than it has ever been since he took charge at the Etihad.