Villa defender Zat Knight has warned Manchester City not to expect it all their own way in the battle to break into the top four.

The Abu Dhabi United Group’s takeover at Eastlands means City are now the world’s richest club. Boss Mark Hughes has immediately been set the target of reaching the Champions League next season.

They have already made a statement of intent by breaking the British transfer record to land Robinho for £32.5million. City have vowed to spend big when the transfer window reopens in January.

The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Fernando Torres are all on their shopping list.

Knight insists City’s money won’t guarantee them success and is confident Villa, who won the pair’s battle 4-2 on the opening weekend, can challenge the monopoly after making some quality acquisitions of their own.

He said: “We believe that we can break into that top four. We want to do better than last season finishing sixth, obviously doing that is fifth or fourth…or third or second!

“Man City’s goal will be the same and obviously they’ve got the money to do it now. The window is shut so they have to play with what they’ve got for the next four or five months.

“There’ll be a lot of ups and downs, they’ll need to keep people fit so we’ll just see how it goes.”