View: Aston Villa must keep Kevin De Bruyne quiet to have a chance v Manchester City
The final game of the Premier League season is nearly here and Aston Villa have the unenviable task of heading to the Etihad to play Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s side will lift the trophy for a second consecutive campaign if they manage to beat the Villans on Sunday (22 May) or if they simply match the result of Liverpool who host Wolves at Anfield.
Steven Gerrard will be very keen to do his former employees a favour but he has already made it clear his main focus is victory for Villa, not defeat for City.
Winning against the Citizens though is an incredibly difficult task and most have been unable to do so this season, especially with a player as talented as Kevin De Bruyne to come up against.
The Belgian was in supreme form away at Wolves earlier in May as he scored four goals in a 5-1 win and ran the show at Molineux.
His first goal epitomised what he is so good at as the City false nine dropped deep to allow the space for a late, surging run into the penalty area where he duly fired a left-footed effort past Jose Sa.
Despite being naturally right-footed, it was De Bruyne’s left bott again that punished Bruno Lage’s men for his hat-trick as he unleashed a vicious strike from outside the area.
And he very rarely misses from these kinds of distances so Villa have to make sure he never gets the space to have a pop because it is bound to hit the target at the very least and perhaps even beat Emiliano Martinez in between the sticks.
Maybe his best attribute though is the vision he possesses and that all comes from his ability to look much further into the future of the pattern of play than any other player on the pitch.
In the example above, he is already looking over his shoulder towards the onrushing Raheem Sterling before he’s even got a touch on the ball whereas most players would take a touch first.
His ability is far beyond anyone in the division when he’s at his best and the Villa midfield will need to be very well organised to keep a leash on him at the Etihad.
In other Aston Villa news, Gerrard reportedly has a Burnley player on his list of potential summer signings.