By Ian KingIt’s been a bad week for Manchester City, and a very good one indeed for Aston VillaLosing a league title race and your generation-defining manager in the space of a few days makes this a difficult week for Manchester City. After ten years at The Etihad, Pep Guardiola is leaving, while a draw at Bournemouth on Tuesday night was enough to ensure that Arsenal could no longer be caught at the top of the Premier League table. Aston Villa had a considerably better week than City, silverware-wise, brushing Freiburg aside to win the Europa League in style the following evening with a 3-0 win in Istanbul, their first European trophy since winning ’The Big Cup’ in 1982. They go into this match in fourth place, and they can still be caught by Liverpool, who are three points behind them with a superior goal difference, but with everybody concerned having already qualified for next year’s Champions League and City already confirmed in second, it’s doubtful that either team will go hell for leather in this fixture.A Manchester City home match against Aston Villa is almost always a home winThere was a time when Manchester City had a superb record against Aston Villa. Between May 2014 and February 2023, they met each other 15 times, with City winning 13 and the other two ending in draws. Their record has been patchier over the last three years, with Villa winning three of their last five meetings. But all of these came at Villa Park. Manchester City have won every meeting between the two teams at The Etihad since Villa won 4-2 in a League Cup match in 2012, and they haven’t dropped a single point against them in the Premier League since losing 2-1 at home to them in April 2007. They’ve only dropped ten points at home against Aston Villa in the entire Premier League era, and those three 19 years ago remain the only ones they’ve ever dropped against them at The Etihad. John McGinn has been an outstanding player and captain for Aston Villa this seasonErling Haaland scored the last-minute equaliser at Bournemouth which ended up meaning very little in the week. It was his 27th League goal of the season and unless Igor Thiago has an incredible afternoon for Brentford at Anfield their final match – he’s five behind – Haaland will finish the season as the Premier League’s top scorer for the third time in the four years that he’s been playing in England. The 27 that he’s currently on is five more than he scored last season, and the same number as he scored in 2023/24. And a couple of goals would certainly be a fitting way to see Pep Guardiola off. A hat-trick would make it a round 30. Given their European win in the week and the relative lack of importance of this match to Aston Villa, we might expect numerous changes to their team. But one player who we might expect to see is captain John McGinn, who has had an exceptional season for them, and who put in a true captain’s performance in the Europa League final. He’s matured into the position brilliantly, over the last two or three years.Pep Guardiola isn’t the only person saying goodbye to Manchester City this weekendGuardiola isn’t the only person leaving Manchester City at the end of this season. This is also the final curtain for both John Stones and Bernardo Silva at The Etihad, but with no injuries or suspensions, City will be at full strength for this match. Unai Emery will likely rest a few players following their midweek exertions, and their main injury issue concerns goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who broke his finger in the warm-up of the Europa League final and may be replaced by Marco Bizot, whose last appearance for them came in their 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest on the 12th April. There’s little to suggest anything but a convincing win for Manchester City, to say farewell to their club-defining managerAston Villa have had an absolutely terrific season. They’d already secured Champions League football well before winning the Europa League. Unai Emery has done a superb job this season. A couple more seasons of this sort of thing and they’ll be getting promoted into the Big Six.But I do expect them to be well-beaten on this occasion. Their record at this stadium is atrocious, and they’re expected to make changes to their team, while City will be at full strength. Were it not libellous, I would list the Villa players who I suspect might turn up with colossal hangovers. This will be a highly sentimental occasion for Manchester City. Pep Guardiola has shaped the club into his image over his decade in charge, and he’s not the only long-time servant to be on his way. John Stones has been with the club for ten years, and Bernardo Silva for nine. Tears may be shed. And in this environment, it’s difficult to see what sort of opposition an Aston Villa team who’ve done what they need to do for the season would be likely to put up. Professional pride counts for something, but this feels like it should be City’s day; a 3-0 home win to soothe what will doubtless be an emotional afternoon at The Etihad.(Cover image from IMAGO)You can follow every game in the Premier League with FotMob – featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.Add FotMob as a preferred news source on Google by clicking – here.