Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League games this season, against a variety of guests.
For week 17, he takes on Reverend & the Makers singer Jon McClure.
Sutton’s prediction: 1-1
Aston Villa are 10 points worse off than the same stage of last season, when they were in second place with 35 points from 16 games.
This time, they are seventh and if you look at their results in the Premier League so far then, apart from when they saw off Fulham in October, they have only beaten teams in the bottom half of the table.
I don’t want to call them flat-track bullies but they are only getting wins against the weaker teams.
Maybe we have to put Manchester City in that bracket too at the moment, though?
In terms of form over the past eight games then only Leicester and Southampton have picked up fewer points than Pep Guardiola’s side.
I keep thinking they will kick back into life, but they actually seem to be getting worse. Everyone is trying to come up with the reason for their poor results – injuries or ageing players, and so on – but they are making basic errors in games and killing themselves.
The smart move for me and anyone else making predictions would be to just back City every week now, because eventually they will come good – but I’ve not seen anything to suggest it will happen here.
The only thing they won last weekend was ‘The Simulation Game’ on 606 thanks to Kyle Walker’s behaviour against Manchester United. I just hope he is all right to play this weekend.
So, I am certainly not going to say they will win at Villa Park, or keep a clean sheet, but then Villa have not really convinced me to back them either.
McClure’s prediction: 2-1
I can’t see past Villa here – I don’t know where City’s next win is going to come from. Even Sheffield Wednesday [who McClure supports] would give them a game at the minute.
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