Villa midfielder Stiliyan Petrov is back in contention after a two-game absence.

The Bulgaria international missed the games with Portsmouth and Sunderland after suffering a hamstring injury during the first half at home to Arsenal.

Central defender Curtis Davies is also pushing for a starting place after recovering from a broken nose sustained in training a week ago.

The former West Brom player has still to start a League game for Villa but is challenging strongly for Zat Knight's place.

Michael Johnson is a major doubt for Manchester City as Sven-Goran Eriksson's men look to record their first Barclays Premier League away win since the opening day of the season by beating Aston Villa.

Johnson is still suffering some discomfort from an abdominal injury which required surgery last month and has been ordered to rest for a couple of days.

If the England Under-21 man misses out, Eriksson could hand Geovanni a rare start alongside Dietmar Hamann as Stephen Ireland is serving the final game of a three-match ban. Joe Hart will definitely be in goal after being preferred to Andreas Isaksson.