A poor first half from Villa and the Officials leads to a second successive defeat and sixth home loss of the campaign.

This is the first Villa game that controversial referee Jonathan Moss has been involved in officiating this season and the first since his highly contentious refereeing of the game at the Etihad in January 2021. Moss sits in the VAR chair today. 

Ashley Young makes the 20th appearance of his return spell with the club (10 starts, 10 subs) to leave him with 210 appearances in a Villa shirt (196 Starts) and make it W91 D60 L59, 38 Goals, 64 Assists, 36 Bookings and 2 Red Cards so far in his Villa career.

Philippe Coutinho makes the 10th appearance of his loan spell from Barcelona to make it W4 D2 L4, 4 Goals and 4 Assists so far in his Villa career.