Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City lost 2-1 to Aston Villa on Saturday and the reigning Premier League champions have lost six of their 8 Premier League games.
WATCH – Full Replay
Jhon Duran’s early goal set Villa up to counter City time and time again, while the excellent Morgan Rogers finished things off in the second half. Phil Foden scored a consolation goal in stoppage time.
MORE – Pep Guardiola reaction
Aston Villa have now moved to 28 points, overtaking Man City in the standings, as they remain on 27 points and are in a real fight to finish in the top four.
Manchester City has a big problem: it cannot prevent the groups from counterattacking. After just 20 moments at Aston Villa, they deserved to have been 1-0 down after allowing a ball through the middle to reach their entire defence, but Jhon Durán wasted a great opportunity. He didn’t make the same mistake 15 minutes later when he scored against Villa after another counterattack. Morgan Rogers made it 2-0 in the second half thanks to, as you may have guessed, some other blocking. Every time City gave the ball away in midfield or in attack, Villa had to make two passes and they got closer to the goal. Yes, City have defensive injuries. Yes, they have little confidence. But it was notable to see Pep Guardiola have a full week to paint City’s tactics for this adjustment and continue to make the same mistake over and over again. This is the team that won 4 consecutive Premier League titles and achieved a historic treble just over 12 months ago. An injury to Rodri does not influence how open they are defensively, they have conceded 27 goals in their last 12 games and cannot control the games or maintain the rhythm of the attacks. It’s bigger. The town collapsed. Mentally and physically, they seem finished. At the end of the busy Christmas season, they may be in the middle of the table and at that point they will begin to divert their attention from a big bet on a name to ensure that they end up somewhere else one way or another. 4th place to get a place in the Champions League. It wasn’t just the play on the field that was most important in Saturday’s defeat against Villa. It was the negative framing language and the way City surrendered and accepted their fate. Guardiola has a huge task to do to rebuild City’s confidence and try to find some kind of solution to prevent them from missing out on big opportunities in every game. For a team of this quality, the way they bet is unacceptable.
Aston Villa will visit Newcastle on Thursday, December 26, Boxing Day. Manchester City will host Everton on Boxing Day.
Duran 16′, Rogers 65′; Foden 94′
Phil Foden runs into the box and Digne steps on the ball and it comes straight back to Foden who finishes well. The city is actually back there!?
Rogers set up the counterattack and replaced Watkins came in. But it goes a little wide and his shot is purposely stored through Ortega and then recovered. It is very easy for Villa to surprise City at the counter.
Brilliant counterattack by Villa as Rogers leads and then plays in McGinn. It was nice of McGinn to put it on a platter for Rogers to hit a low shot.
Pep Guardiola’s team has just scored their second touch of the moment in Villa’s area. They don’t seem threatening at all. Pep looks anguished on the sidelines.
Rogers hits the post after some lovely link-up play between him and Duran. A lovely flick from the latter leads to Rogers bulldozing past a tackle but his low shot hits the post.
Konsa plays until the end and Durán comes in and finishes, but the flag goes up and he is obviously offside. City’s first line was about to be surprised again.
Villa counterattacks and Durán falls on the ball but there is nothing there. Cash then enters the domain but his shot goes wide.
Pep Guardiola made one change at half-time with Kyle Walker replacing John Stones. That means Rico Lewis moved to left back with Walker to right back and Akanji and Gvardiol to centre-back. Maybe Stones recovered too temporarily from his injury?
Brilliant start from Villa and Durán took full advantage with his calm finish. City held on and did not collapse, but Villa looked very damaging on the counterattack. Guardiola will soon call up De Bruyne, Doku and Savinho.
Josko Gvardiol leads a counter and strides forward after playing in Grealish. A lovely cross from the former Villa man finds Gvardiol but he just gets too much on his header and it flies over.
Foden and Lewis mix it up and the former has a low, curling shot across Martinez. Good play by City and very intelligent stop by Martínez.
They had a lot of the ball but did very little. Villa just sit back and if City have it, then it looks so damaging at half-time when they get it back. The city is very vulnerable.
Tielemans with a great turn and ball forward for Rogers and puts Duran home. This will go ahead and Villa deservedly lead and as things stand they leapfrog City in the table and into fifth place.
What a start at Villa Park! City are almost in but Grealish can’t make the most of a good chance, then Villa break and Akanji makes a vital clearance.
Aston Villa should be 1-0 up less than 30 seconds in! McGinn presses Gvardiol and Duran is in. His low shot lacks power and Ortega saves. From the corner Ortega then makes an incredible save to deny Torres. Then Onana heads another corner over. Straight away Manchester City on the back foot.
Martinez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Kamara; McGinn, Tielemans, Onana, Rogers; Duran
Ortega Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol; Lewis, Kovacic; Silva, Foden, Gundogan, Grealish; Haaland
How about a message for thread pullers? Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Lucas Digne gave Villa plenty of chances. And then Ollie Watkins, who is getting more and more cunning. If he can make more of his great opportunities (lately he has 15 chances and seven goals, the best mark in the league), Villa will once again be among the four most sensible.
OUT: Jacob Ramsey (thigh)
Jack Grealish will be in the spotlight when he returns home and is on a long career with no purpose. Grealish last scored when he ended a three-game goal streak on Dec. 16, 2023, at home to Palace. It will take more than a year to get up and running.
OUT: Ruben Dias (muscular), Rodri (knee – off-season), Nathan Ake (thigh), Oscar Bobb (lower leg), Ederson (unknown)
Expecting one or two blank pages here would be unreasonable. Making a prediction would be foolish given the unpredictable defensive records of both teams. Grealish assist on the return? Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City.
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