Aston Villa v Man City (13:30 GMT)

Participating in football is a taxing experience, forcing grown adults to suspend ego and disbelief in order to argue about who claps louder, which seats are emptier, and whose parents cohabited closest to a particular ground. Awkward or what?

Another frequently debated topic is “history” - as defined, of course, by the parameters set out in E.H. Carr’s seminal work. To save you the bother of reading it, he concludes that generations of joy, disappointment, excitement and community count for nothing, with meaning measured solely in silverware.

Not really. But, as it happens, Aston Villa have plenty: seven league titles, seven FA Cups, five League Cups and one European Cup, or, put another way, as many as London, Rome and Paris combined. So their current status, as a synonym for ennui, is not in keeping with a culture established over 141 years of toil, and accordingly, the people are not happy.

Much of the blame for this can be directed at Randy Lerner, for it was he who allowed Martin O’Neill to leave at a time when things were going well. Shortly afterwards, he learned that the Premier League is not like the National Football League (the clue’s in the name), and the upshot might have been described by Geoffrey Howe as “managed decline”.

If he was being kind. With transfer funds restricted, O’Neil was replaced by Gerard Houllier, with predictable results; Houllier was replaced by Alex McLeish, with predictable results; Paul Lambert, fair enough; Lambert was replaced by Tim Sherwood, with predictable results.

But, at least, there’s now a but. The appointment of Remi Garde is, if nothing else, interesting. He’s young, he’s enterprising, and perhaps most importantly of all, no one is absolutely certain what’s going to happen next. It’s a start.

However, there’s always a however. This afternoon, Villa play Manchester City - the country’s best side and perhaps one on its way to becoming one of Europe’s too. City’s midweek performance in Seville, without their two best players, was perhaps their best since returning to the European Cup, and the chances are they’ll attack today’s game in similar vein.

Aston Villa (4-5-1): Guzan; Hutton, Richards, Clark, Amavi; Idrissa, Veretout, Sanchez, Gil, Sinclair; Ayew.

Subs: Bunn, Bacuna, Lescott, Richardson, N’Zogbia, Gestede, Grealish.

Manchester City (4-3-3): Hart, Sagna, Kompany, Otamendi, Kolarov; Fernando, Fernandinho, Toure; De Bruyne, Bony, Sterling.

Subs: Caballero, Demichelis, Mangala, Clichy, Delph, Navas, Iheanacho.