Aston Villa beat champions Manchester City 1-0 on Wednesday evening in the Premier League to extend their remarkable winning run at home.
Unai Emery’s side, who have now won 14 league games in a row at Villa Park, scored the only goal of the game in the 74th minute, when Leon Bailey’s shot took a huge deflection off Ruben Dias. Pep Guardiola’s off-colour Manchester City had no answer to Villa’s goal and succumbed to their third defeat of the Premier League season.
The win lifted Aston Villa to third in the table, only four points behind league leaders Arsenal. On the other hand, Man City are now winless in four games and have dropped to fourth in the standings. That said, here are the three takeaways from Villa’s 1-0 win over Man City.
Aston Villa outplay Man City
Aston Villa beating Man City was the headline that sent shockwaves through the Premier League. But it wasn’t the full story of an incredible evening at Villa Park purely because a simple scoreline—a 1-0 victory—flattered Man City and underrepresented Villa’s dominance.
Villa didn’t just beat the treble winners of last term; it outmaneuvered, outplayed and outwitted Pep Guardiola’s side in every department. Boubacar Kamara, Douglas Luiz and Youri Tielemans controlled the game from midfield. Pau Torres was imperious at the back. John McGinn was magical leaving his opponents befuddled. Leon Bailey—the goalscorer—was excellent.
City have lost a fair number of games under Guardiola and a couple of them already this season. They lost to Arsenal in October and to Wolves in September. But Guardiola’s men rarely, if ever, lose like they lost in midweek in Birmingham. And seldom, if ever, look as disjointed, exposed and meek as they do currently.
Man City remain heavily dependent on Rodri
The result at Villa Park means Man City are now four Premier League games without a win—matching their longest winless run in the top-flight under Guardiola—and more evidence of how crucial Rodri is to their hopes of success this campaign.
With the Spain international suspended, City failed to find any sort of control and rhythm in midfield as John McGinn, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Douglas Luiz ran rings around John Stones and Rico Lewis. The only surprise was that Villa took as long as 74 minutes to score.
Rodri has missed four domestic games this season and the Sky Blues have lost them all. As vital as Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias are, they simply cannot compete with teams without their star defensive midfielder. Luckily for Guardiola, the Spaniard will return for the game against Luton Town on Sunday.
Unai Emery gets the better of Pep Guardiola
Leon Bailey set Villa Park alight as Unai Emery finally got the monkey off his back. The Jamaican international bagged a superb solo goal—albeit a deflection off Ruben Dias—to send records tumbling in the East Midlands.
Bailey’s winner 16 minutes from time helped Emery put one over Pep Guardiola at the 14th attempt. The two Spanish managers had gone head to head 13 times in the past and the Aston Villa boss had never been on the winning side. But that changed on Wednesday as the Villans sent out a message that they are a force to be reckoned with this campaign and that their run till now isn’t just a flash in the pan.
