Manchester City Women will aim to continue their impressive start to 2022 when they travel to the Bescot Stadium to face Aston Villa Women on Sunday.
The visitors will be looking to close the four-point gap to the top three in the Women's Super League, while tenth-placed Aston Villa will be bidding to end a run of three consecutive defeats in all competitions.
Match preview
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Aston Villa saw their fixture last weekend against Everton postponed, so Sunday's encounter with Man City represents the Villains' first outing of 2022.
Carla Ward will hope that the winter break prompts a change in fortunes after Villa ended 2021 with three consecutive defeats across all competitions.
Their most recent fixture resulted in a demoralising 5-0 defeat away to Manchester United, which left Villa in 10th position in the WSL.
Although, they still have a seven-point buffer between themselves and the sole relegation spot, but their recent form is a cause for concern.
In their last six league games, Aston Villa have collected only three points, while in that period they have conceded 16 goals and have scored on just two occasions, but Ward will be hoping that the new year results in a reinvigorated Villa side.
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Man City have started the new year with consecutive victories, but what has been even more encouraging is the manner of those wins.
Last Sunday, Gareth Taylor's side eased past Brighton & Hove Albion courtesy of a 6-0 scoreline, with all six goals coming in the second half.
They followed that with another emphatic victory in midweek as Man City trounced Leicester City 5-0 in the League Cup, with Lauren Hemp and Georgia Stanway netting two goals each, while Ellen White also got on the scoresheet.
The Citizens will now turn their attention back to league action, and they will not be daunted by a third successive away fixture after scoring 11 goals in their last two outings.
In fact, City have fared better on the road than on home turf after picking up 13 of their 16 WSL points from away games, and they will be aiming for a fourth consecutive away victory in all competitions on Sunday.
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Team News
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Aston Villa have brought in Anna Patten on loan from Arsenal, and she is expected to come into the starting lineup for the Man City encounter.
Ward has a number of absentees to contend with Remi Allen, Ramona Petzelberger and Elisha N'Dow expected to miss out.
Emily Gielnik is also unavailable as she is currently at the Asia Cup with Australia.
Hayley Raso and Alanna Kennedy are both unavailable for the hosts, with the pair away with the Australia national team at the Asia Cup.
Taylor is also without the services of the injured duo of Chloe Kelly and Ellie Roebuck, while Bunny Shaw and Caroline Weir are doubts for Saturday's contest.
City will be encouraged by the return of Lucy Bronze and Steph Houghton, who have both featured in Man City's last two games.
Aston Villa Women possible starting lineup:
Hampton; Patten, Asante, Sargeant, Pacheco; Littlejohn, Arthur, McLoughlin; Hayles, Lehmann, Boye-Hlorkah
Manchester City Women possible starting lineup:
Benameur; Bronze, Houghton, Greenwood, Stokes; Combs, Walsh, Stanway; Hemp, Park, White
We say: Aston Villa Women 0-4 Manchester City Women
With Man City beginning the year in scintillating form, we think that they will make light of a struggling Villa side on Saturday, as Taylor's side look to close the gap to the top three.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Manchester City Women win with a probability of 94.27%. A draw had a probability of 4.8% and a win for Aston Villa Women had a probability of 0.92%.
The most likely scoreline for a Manchester City Women win was 0-3 with a probability of 17.16%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-4 (14.99%) and 0-2 (14.73%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 0-0 (2.41%), while for an Aston Villa Women win it was 1-0 (0.56%). The actual scoreline of 0-3 was predicted with a 17.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-3 win for Manchester City Women in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for Manchester City Women.
