Unless there’s any pertinent issues relating to upcoming games, as there certainly are in this one, I’m going to knock these previews on the head for a while. There’s some good resources out there and my view is that unless I add something new, it’s not something I can get my teeth into.

However, this game may well have been one on the fixture list a lot of Villa fans looked for at the beginning of the season. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve written enough about Gareth Barry and he’s no longer an Aston Villa player so I couldn’t care less about him.

Yes, he’s going to get booed and probably pretty badly. It would be nice if the home crowd could create such a partisan atmosphere for more games. Make Villa Park a bit more intimidating. Sadly the boos are normally reserved for the home team.

The big risk, of course, is that the hostile reception could fire the player up and it could back fire in a big way. I’m not convinced that Barry is strong enough in character for that to be the way it pans out, but I can’t discount it as a possibility. We shall see, but certainly Gareth Barry hogs the limelight for this fixture.

Richard Dunne is also getting his first opportunity to play against his last employers, but he didn’t leave under the same cloud so shouldn’t expect any harsh treatment from the visiting fans. Frankly, if there was any animosity it was on his part for practically being shown the door. However, out of the two, surely Dunne would be the more motivated to prove a point in this game? I hope so!

My impression of this season’s City side is that they’re desperate to prove they’re the real deal and, in fairness, they’ve gelled a little better than I expected so far. Maybe that’s predictable to a point, they’ve come under an enormous amount of scrutiny and criticism, it’s entirely possible that they’ve bonded by effectively circling the wagons. I think that as the season progresses the egos will begin to emerge and little fractures will appear. As that point we’ll find out whether Mark Hughes can manage these superstars or whether it will all implode in his face.

Which seques me in rather nicely to our own case of egos being managed – specifically, Nigel Reo-Coker’s. Actually, he’s the reason I’ve not exactly been prolific in posting recently as I’ve been researching and writing something of a mini-biopic. The reason being that I genuinely hope that he will not be leaving us in January as all the speculation currently points to. All I’ll say right now is that I hope he’ll not only be in the squad later, but will be on the pitch as part of a five man midfield.

In fact, that’s probably all that needs saying about the whole game. The back four are pretty much nailed on and have mostly done a good job, one or two lapses at Blackburn aside. Gabby’s form has rightly won him an England call up. Which just leave the midfield and the general consensus about that is pretty clear.

Looking at the table, City occupy 6th place with 15 points and Villa are in 8th with 12. It would take a 3-0 win to move above them, so unless we have one of those games where everything just seems to fall into place, it’s unlikely that we’ll ease back into a European place today.

Man City bare little resemblance to the teams of years past, but for what it’s worth Aston Villa have won this fixture 34 out of 70. City have won 14 times, the last time being 3 years ago with Vassell opening the scoring and there have been 22 draws.

Chelsea will be coming to VP next after the International break, it’s imperative that we do not lose this game. It’s so early in the season for a six-pointer, but that’s what this is looking like.

As usual, team announcement and major talking points during the game will be updated on Twitter. If you’re going to the game and Tweeting yourself, try to use the #avfc hashtag and I’ll see it. Any pictures will be re-Tweeted.