Tune in at 11:00 AM ET as Aston Villa takes on Man City. Rob Sturney will be liveblogging for your enjoyment.
Good morning, all!
I'm Rob Sturney here with the Score's continuing coverage of the EPL. Today's match sees Manchester City travel to Birmingham to face Aston Villa.
Lineups: Aston Villa: Given, Dunne, Cuellar, Collins, Hutton; Petrov, Gardner, Albrighton, Heskey; Keane; Bent
Man City: Hart, Lescott, Kompany, Zabaleta, Kolarov; Barry, De Jong, Milner, Johnson, Silva; Aguero
Plenty of changes on both sides. The unhappy Ireland and N'Zogbia will be more gloomy on the bench. Gardner and Heskey get the starts.
Mancini has gone with only Aguero up front. Zabaleta is in for Richards.
Keane will play just behind Bent. Like Henry at Arsenal, Keane will heading back to the U.S. soon.
In the loss to Newcastle last week, Ireland shouted an epithet at Alex McLeish and N'Zogbia tweeted that he's very unhappy.
Villa is now 15th after WBA thumped Wolves (sorry, Simon) 5-1 and jump the Villans. Man City are second behind Man United who famously beat Liverpool in the Non-Handshake Match.
From the top shelf: Arsenal, Man United and Spurs won while Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool lost.
Any predictions out there today?
Villa is 3-4-5 at home, City is 6-3-3 away.
Aston Villa have beaten Wolves, drawn with QPR and lost to Newcastle in their last three.
City has beaten Spurs and Fulham but lost to Everton in their last three.
Two predictions, ProKid?
Bent leads Villa with nine goals and Aguero has fifteen for the Citizens.
For you Serie A fans (Gabe, I'm looking at you), Inter Milan is about to lose at home to lowly Novara.
Sometimes Man City has looked a little lost on the road this year, so it'll be interesting to see how much cut and thrust they have from the get go.
Villa are wearing their traditional claret and blue jerseys with white shorts. Given is in all grey. I think City is in their black and red striped kits, but I can't tell because they're all wearing their jackets. Hart wears all olive drab.
Mancini nearly turns an ankle getting up to greet McLeish.
Villa will attack from left to right in this half. Left to right. They'll kick us off too.
Oh, City is in dark blue change kits. I see.
We're underway.
Goodness, me! I just want GOOOOOAAAALLLS, Antagon.
I've seen plenty of road draws, losses from the title contenders, so why not?
2 min: Not much on for either team as the game looks to find its rhythm. Not to keep flogging the uniform dead horse, but the dark blue change kits are better than the red and black stripes. Enough about that.
4 min: Aguero had a nice turn and fire at the top of the box, but Given was equal to it.
4 min: City slowly move the sphere out of the back. Barry reaches Kolarov on the overlap. City switch the field and Johnson must be tightly marked as he has a sniff of goal.
6 min: The action has hotted up, as they say. Albrighton nearly got loose on the left flank enough to cross, but was neutralized by Zabaleta.
Just shake the guy's hand. That's all. Maybe even say sorry, even if deep down you aren't? Pour water on it, not petrol.
7 min: Throw in for Kolarov, two of them, in fact. He throws thrice.
