Aston Villa vs Man City LIVE early team news ahead of Premier League fixture

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Aston Villa vs Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola's side will be looking to continue their impressive start to the season, having won four and drawn one of their opening five games.

City come into this one off the back of a 6-0 thrashing of Nottingham Forest on Wednesday evening, a result that saw Erling Haaland score his second hat-trick in the space of four days - taking his league tally to nine in five games - and Julian Alvarez score his first competitive goals for the club.

City's opponents, Villa, have not enjoyed an ideal start to the campaign. Manager Steven Gerrard is under pressure with his side sitting in 19th position in the table having won just one of their opening give games.

In terms of team news, Jack Grealish and Nathan Ake could return from injury but Kalvin Phillips and Aymeric Laporte remain sidelined. New signing Manuel Akanji could be included in the matchday squad.

With City playing every three or four days until the international break later this month, it will be interesting to see if Guardiola makes any changes to his side.

For build-up, team news, live match updates and post-match reaction, follow the blog below.

Erling Haaland could make Premier League history if he has another fruitful match in-front of goal. Read more about that, as well as what else to look out for in Villa vs City, here.

Down in 19th position in the table after one win from five games, it's fair to say that Aston Villa have endured a tough start to the season. Villa Park is never an easy place to go though, regardless of how Villa are doing.

On Friday Pep Guardiola acknowledged that, saying he'd rather rather City were facing a Villa side in good form, rather than one that is