Confirmed: Aston Villa v Manchester City lineups

Kevin de Bruyne will miss 10 weeks of Manchester City’s bid for success on four trophy fronts, starting with the visit to Aston Villa in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday. But all the players every season here, the pressure is very high.

De Bruyne’s goal and assist won the tie for City, but the night ended with a bitter taste for the club as the Belgian wideman fell awkwardly and had to be stretchered off with suspected knee and ankle ligament damage. “The most important thing is the first step, and we have done that, we are in the first final”.

Villa will head into the tie on the back of an encouraging goalless draw with West Bromwich Albion away from home at the Hawthorns in the Premier League.

They face Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday February 24 and Tuesday March 15 for a last-eight spot, while they are three points behind top flight leaders Leicester with 15 games remaining.

“If the boss decides I have to play against Aston Villa then I’m ready”.

City, meanwhile, are just coming off the back of a hard-fought game against Everton in midweek where they managed to progress to the Capital One Cup final, but at the cost of losing Kevin de Bruyne, possibly for the rest of the season given the time it will take to get him back to match fitness.

Aston Villa will be missing Alan Hutton in defence and Carlos Sanchez in midfield, both suffering from hamstring injuries. “That was less of a mistake than the two penalties when he didn’t whistle against Everton in the Premier League and in the first leg at Goodison Park”.

“We must continue playing with the whole squad if we want to be a competitive team”, said the Chilean.

Man City are undefeated in 10 of their last 11 matches against Aston Villa in all competitions.

“It’s not a target that we have in mind at the moment because it is not a realistic target”, Pellegrini told reporters on Friday when asked about the quadruple. Villa have turned their form right around over the past five games and are unbeaten in that span. This game could be a welcome distraction for Villa as their struggles in the Premier League are overwhelming and the ten point gap to safety nearly looks unachievable already.

“My injury was not serious but I had a talk with the doctor and we agreed it was best for me to stay out and have a couple of weeks just training so I could recover 100 percent”.