English Premier LeagueVilla wary of wounded Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City ahead of EPL clash
Guardiola

Aston Villa coach Dean Smith warns his side against the wounded Manchester City ahead of Wednesday English Premier League clash.

Guardiola

Villa welcomes Pep Guardiola’s league leaders for the round 33 English Premier League clash after the FA Cup semifinals defeat. City lost 1-0 to Thomas Tuchel’s side Chelsea to bail out of the finals.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Smith says he expects Manchester City to be smartening after the FA Cup.

“The fact they got beaten by Chelsea which stopped the history-making quadruple means they will be smarting,” Smith said.

“Pep will be, he is a winner and he will want to win this game against us. And then go with a winning mentality into the Carabao Cup final.

“We have to match them in leg work; we have to work extremely hard. They are very good with or without the football,” he continued.

“I went to the semi-final and I thought Chelsea were excellent against them. They restricted them to a few chances and if you can do that then, with the ball, you can get chances against them. It’s hard but we’ve seen it,” he added.

“All teams have some kind of weakness; it’s up to you to find them. We have a belief in what we do. And hopefully, we can go and play a good competitive game against what I believe is one of the best teams in Europe, if not the world.”

Manchester City will be looking to extend the Premier League lead and push for the title after Manchester United reduced it to 8 points.

But, if they fail to win today against Aston Villa, then that will give the Red Devils a fresh title hope. United, who have proved resilient in The EPL, have regularly come from behind to claim victory and reignite title challenge.