Perfect City visit winless-at-home Villa as Saka injury clouds Arsenal's chase

Manchester City take a perfect Premier League record to Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime, three points clear of Arsenal, who host Everton later the same day with Bukayo Saka's fitness in doubt. City have 21 points from seven games, Arsenal 18 and third-placed Brighton 16.

The gap in numbers

Enzo Maresca's City have won all seven league matches, scoring 19 and conceding seven. Away from home they are three from three with one goal against. Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have six wins and one defeat, with the tightest defence of the top two: five goals conceded, and three home wins from three.

City: Villa Park, 12:30 BST

Villa sit 12th on eight points and are still without a home league win this season: one draw and two defeats at Villa Park. Unai Emery's side are flying in Europe, though, with nine points from three Champions League games after Wednesday's 3-1 win over Viking. "In the Premier League we are still not winning," Emery said, adding that his players "can feel confident and comfortable for the next challenges".

Maresca confirmed Erling Haaland, the league's top scorer with eight goals, is "100% available" after sitting on the bench for the 5-1 Champions League win over AEK Athens. Phil Foden scored a hat-trick in that game and has four goals in his last two. Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic and Nico O'Reilly "could all be available", with "still doubts" over the three. "They are a very good team and you can see clearly what they want; they are very intense off the ball," Maresca said of Villa.

Arsenal: Everton at home

Saka went off after ten minutes of Wednesday's 2-2 draw at Bayern Munich with a left quad problem. "A player that has to come off with a really sharp pain is never good news but we have to wait and see," Arteta said, before adding that it "doesn't look good at all". The winger was due a scan on Thursday, with Arteta expected to update on Friday.

Christos Tzolis is also out, so Noni Madueke, who moved to the right wing when Saka came off in Munich, is the likely replacement according to the Evening Standard, with Max Dowman another option. Sky Sports figures show Arsenal have won 64.2 per cent of the Premier League games Saka has started since 2020/21, against 53.3 per cent without him. There was better news on Piero Hincapie: Arteta said earlier this week the defender "will be available for Everton" if he trains in the days before the game.

Everton arrive eighth on ten points and unbeaten on the road, with three draws from three away games. Arsenal will know City's result before kick-off: a City slip at Villa Park would let them draw level on points with a win.