Manchester Metropolis proceed their push in direction of the highest of the Premier League desk on Sunday towards an Aston Villa facet who’ve overwhelmed them on their previous two journeys to Villa Park.
Metropolis could not high the Premier League desk however they’ve gained extra factors than another facet because the begin of April (39) and will transfer stage with leaders ought to the Gunners slip up at dwelling to Crystal Palace.
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Tuesday’s Champions League victory at Villarreal made it seven wins from 9 matches (D2) in all competitions for Metropolis and central to their surge in kind have been the superlative performances of striker Erling Haaland.
The 25-year-old’s opening purpose on Tuesday was the Norwegian’s twenty fourth in simply 14 matches for membership and nation this season.
It adopted a double within the 2-0 win towards final weekend, which took Haaland to 11 targets in simply eight Premier League outings.
It’s the third-fastest any Premier League participant has reached double figures in a single season – and Haaland himself is chargeable for the opposite two, doing so in 5 video games in 2024-25 and 6 video games in 2022-23.
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His document stacks up towards the most effective in Europe this season, whereas he has additionally been scoring frequently away from dwelling.
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Metropolis have scored seven Premier League away targets in whole in 2025-26 and Haaland has scored 5 of these, together with no less than one in every of 4 fixtures on the highway thus far.
Solely have prevented Haaland from scoring within the Premier League thus far this season and the following facet making an attempt to emulate that feat are Villa.
They’re having fun with a resurgent run of Premier League outcomes following a troublesome begin to this marketing campaign, with three successive wins domestically – though a much-changed line-up had been upset by Go Forward Eagles within the Europa League on Thursday.
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Ought to Unai Emery’s facet see off Metropolis, they’ll turn out to be simply the second crew in top-flight historical past to fail to win any of their opening 5 matches after which triumph within the subsequent 4, after in 1936.
Villa have gained their previous two dwelling league video games towards Metropolis, their greatest run on this fixture at Villa Park since a sequence of 5 successive victories between 1960 and 1975 – however managing fatigue could possibly be an element following Thursday’s journey to the Netherlands.
Emery should depend on a squad effort to battle on a number of fronts and Emi Buendia has underlined the significance of creating an influence from the bench in current weeks.
The attacking midfielder’s winner at Tottenham final Sunday was his third purpose in 4 matches – two of which have come in its place within the Premier League.
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It continues a outstanding turnaround for Buendia – a £33m signing in June 2021 – within the West Midlands after lacking everything of 2023-24 due to harm and spending the second half of final season on mortgage at Bayer Leverkusen within the Bundesliga.
The 28-year-old began towards Go Forward Eagles in midweek, which means he might return to a bench function on Sunday – a ploy that has labored properly for Emery in current weeks.