Tim Sherwood hopes Aston Villa can harness the feel-good factor of their FA Cup semi-final win over Liverpool when they travel to Manchester City on Saturday.
Villa reached their first FA Cup showpiece for 15 years with a 2-1
victory at Wembley on Sunday as their resurgence under Sherwood
continued.
Since his arrival in February, Villa have greatly
boosted their chances of avoiding the drop, climbing four points clear
of the relegation zone ahead of this weekend's trip to the Etihad
Stadium.
"I'm hoping the semi-final will give us a boost,
especially on the back of the Tottenham result as well," Sherwood told
reporters. "We'll need the fans to create the same backing and
atmosphere as they did at Wembley.
"There's probably never a
good time to play Man City but we have to play them. They've shown they
are beatable, even at the Etihad. We'll go there and try to win.
"Man City, like Liverpool and Tottenham, have players who can win games
on their own. We must nullify their threat. If we do so, we can impose
our own style in the game. We believe we can go there and get something.
"We have to realise the FA Cup is now on the backburner. We realise we
have a lot of hard work to do to stay in the Premier League."
Unlike Villa, reigning champions City are meandering towards concluding
the season without any silverware, their sights instead set on securing
an automatic Champions League qualification spot.
Manuel
Pellegrini's side lie fourth, a point behind Manchester United and one
further adrift of Arsenal, and defender Bacary Sagna is targeting a
strong end to what has been a difficult campaign.
He told the Manchester Evening News:
"In some of the games we were maybe unlucky and we had them in
position, but we couldn't score and it's not easy to play in front of a
wall.
"Everyone looks forward in the same direction, we want to
be successful as a team, and the coach and the staff and everyone is
part of the team. We are doing our best to get back to a winning team
and to finish the season well."
David Silva suffered a facial
injury in the 2-0 win over West Ham last time out and remains doubtful,
as do Samir Nasri (leg), James Milner (knee), Stevan Jovetic (muscular)
Gael Clichy (groin) and Wilfried Bony (ankle).
Vincent
Kompany's thigh injury looks set to rule him out for the rest of the
season, while Sherwood will be without defensive duo Ciaran Clark and
Nathan Baker (both knee).
Gabriel Agbonlahor is still a concern
after missing the cup semi-final, but Aly Cissokho and Philippe
Senderos are back in contention following injury.
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