Villa look to end Manchester monotony

As almost everyone knows, Birmingham is labelled the second city and many Villa fans would have good reason for thinking the first city is not London but Manchester. This is because the Claret and Blue army have only seen their side win seven of the 52 meetings between Villa and teams from the land of Oasis and The Smiths.

Both United and City always seem to play sweet music against our boys no matter what team they put out and whether they are under-dogs or not.

It has got to the stage where if you're a pessimistic Villa fan you almost write off games against the Red Devils and the Blue Moon boys.

However, many Villans choose to stay optimistic, and why not?

Martin O'Neill will look to mastermind that eighth victory on Saturday that will see his team step up their challenge for Europe.

He goes into the game with alost a fully fit squad to choose from. Curtis Davies is likely to return to the bench after recovering from a broken nose sustained last week. Also Bulgarian midfielder Stiliyan Petrov has returned to boost Villa's right-midfield options.

The Blue Moon bogey team boys will be without Stephen Ireland who is still missing through suspension.

The visitors are sweating over midfielder Michael Johnson who was the match winner when the teams met earlier in the season. If he fails to make it then Brazilian Geovanni will look to step in and add flair to Sven's line-up.

So it's fourth versus eighth in a clash of the European contenders. Villa fans will have their Man City voodoo dolls at the ready in a bid to end the dreaded Manchester curse.