Aston Villa made the journey up the M6 to take on Manchester City after a surprise defeat at home to Leicester City last weekend. Their hosts were also coming off the back of a chastening loss, as Guardiola’s side came unstuck against bogey team Tottenham Hotspur.
Unai Emery has turned the fortunes around of Villa away from home this season, but getting a result at Manchester City would mark a real sign of progress. Villa have not won at the Etihad since a 4-2 League Cup win in 2012, whilst the last Premier League success in East Manchester came in 2008 courtesy of goals from Shaun Maloney and John Carew.
The build-up to the match had been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Manchester City’s 115 alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play rules which was fuelled further by some bizarre press conference comments by Pep Guardiola. The events of the week had a clear galvanising effect in the blue side of Manchester.
Villa suffered a huge late blow in the build-up to the match, with Emery confirming that England international Tyrone Mings missed out with a minor injury. Calum Chambers came in for his first league start since August.
For City, Kevin De Bruyne came back into the starting XI after being dropped for tactical reasons last week, whilst Rúben Dias also returned to the lineup after injury issues had limited his game time this season. After a week of bullish comments defending City’s finances, Guardiola named a star-studded starting XI worth an estimated £558 million at an average of around £51 million per player. Villa’s side, on the other hand, cost an estimated £165 million or £15 million per player.
A successful game plan for the away side would have required high levels of defensive concentration and stoicism, but just four minutes into the game, Villa got off to the worst possible start. Rodri ran unchallenged to head home an outswinging Riyad Mahrez corner to put the hosts ahead.
City have collected an enviable arsenal of attacking talent who need no invitation to punish an opposition and so to give them such a cheap head start was bitterly disappointing.
Just six minutes later and it almost got a whole lot worse, as Emi Martínez made an excellent save to deny the marauding Gündogan his fifth goal against Villa in eight appearances.
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The hosts have struggled away in recent weeks, but their Etihad form has been as strong as ever. The early goal had set the tone and the side in light blue were purring with De Bruyne and former Villan Jack Grealish looking sharp, whilst Gündogan and Bernardo Silva picked up clever positions and Rodri pulled the strings behind.
For almost forty minutes Villa could not live with the relentless City movement, although a rare foray into blue territory could have resulted in a penalty had Bailey, to use a term favoured by pundits, ‘cleverly’ gone to ground in the box after a clumsy De Bruyne slide. The Jamaican attempted to stay on his feet but could not find a cross.
As the suffocated Villa looked to survive until half time just one goal behind, a teasing De Bruyne through ball set hearts racing in the visitor’s backline. With goalgetter extraordinaire Erling Haaland lurking, Chambers panicked and headed the ball away from skipper Martínez, who had looked set to clear comfortably. The powerful Norwegian forward collected the loose ball and squared it for Günodgan, who tapped in yet another goal against Villa.
Two became three with seconds left of the half. Grealish ran into the box and initiated contact with his former prodigy Jacob Ramsey before throwing himself to the ground as he headed away from goal. Despite a large consensus from the media and neutrals that there was nothing doing, referee Rob Jones and his VAR team deemed it to be a City penalty. Mahrez dismissed usual penalty taker Haaland and coolly stepped up to put the game out of Villa’s reach.
Villa had been poor in possession and like against Leicester were easy to play through, whilst City looked back to their breath-taking best. The crucial times in which the Blues scored confounded their excellent afternoon thus far and will have disappointed visiting manager Unai Emery immensely. The Villa coach was looking for his first win in 12 matches against Guardiola, and the state of play at the break suggested that the man from the Basque Country would have to wait a bit longer to break his duck.
With one eye on a top of the table clash with his former assistant Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in midweek, Guardiola rested two key men at the break. Haaland and Dias were replaced by the young World Cup winner Julián Álvarez and the reliable defender Manuel Akanji.
The first ten minutes of the second half followed a similar pattern to the first, although most City attacks ended in a tame effort down the throat of the Villa number one.
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Unai Emery turned to his bench as the game approached the hour mark as John McGinn, Jhon Durán and Alex Moreno were summoned. Emi Buendía, Leon Bailey and Lucas Digne made way. The trio made an instant impact and Colombian forward Durán immediately pressed Silva into an error. Luiz set Watkins away, with the England forward evading Akanji and sliding the ball past Ederson. The composed finish was his 34th goal in his 100th Villa appearance and 45th goal contribution for the club.
Further changes, with Cash and Coutinho joining the action, saw Villa continue to improve, although City had started to take their foot off the gas. Former Liverpool man Coutinho tested Ederson with a stunning long range effort, whilst Durán continued his exciting cameo as his arrowing left footed volley rattled the bar.
As it was though, City’s early dominance had put them out of reach of Villa and Unai Emery was condemned to only his third league defeat since taking charge in B6.
Last season’s Premier League champions were slick and composed as they took a much deserved three points. For Villa, with Arsenal next up, improvements will need to be made. This was always going to be a difficult assignment against a world class side and the resilience shown in the second half despite being outclassed early on, alongside the impressive performance of the substitutes, will offer Emery and Villa fans a glimmer of positivity after a tricky afternoon in the North-West.
Phillipe Coutinho, Jhon Durán and Alex Moreno, in particular, stood out and will be pushing for a start when the high flying Gunners come to town next week. The possible return of linchpin Tyrone Mings will also make a huge difference, with Villa so often struggling in his absence.
AUTHOR | JOEY MILLINGTON
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