Having drawn their last three games in the Premier League, Manchester City were eager to return to winning ways at Villa Park on Wednesday night (December 6). Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, however, did not like that script and chose to rewrite it with some major edits. A fascinating contest unfolded in Birmingham, which saw Aston Villa clinch a stellar 1-0 victory over reigning English and European champions Manchester City.
Aston Villa Dominated Manchester City In Premier League Showdown
In their three previous matches, Manchester City drew 4-4 with Chelsea, drew 1-1 with Liverpool, and played out a 3-3 stalemate with Tottenham Hotspur. In all three games, the Cityzens came close to winning at one point or the other. That was not the case on Wednesday night. Despite fielding some of the best players in the world, Pep Guardiola could not get the better of Emery. Truth be told, the Spaniard and his men were lucky to escape with only a 1-0 defeat. Throughout the game, Villa had 22 shots, with seven of those landing on target. In contrast, City shockingly just had two.
Aston Villa lodged their first attempt on target just six minutes into the game, with Leon Bailey directing John McGinn’s early cross onto Ederson’s goal. The right midfielder could not get much power behind his header, making it rather straightforward for the Manchester City goalkeeper to push it behind for a corner. The resulting corner, however, drew an excellent save out of Ederson, with the goalkeeper stretching every muscle of his body to keep out Pau Torres’ curling effort.
2 – Man City attempted just two shots in this match; the fewest ever by a Pep Guardiola team in a game within Europe’s big-five leagues, while the 22 shots from Aston Villa was the joint-most faced by a Guardiola side in the same period (tonight his 535th such game). Dominated. pic.twitter.com/T0gjP1ZbpZ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 6, 2023
Manchester City responded with an attack of their own in the 11th minute, but Argentine superstar Emiliano Martinez made two impressive saves to keep out Phil Foden and Erling Haaland.
After Bailey had tested Ederson a couple more times, Douglas Luiz hit the back of the net for Villa in the 45th minute. Unfortunately, the Brazilian had to cut his celebration short, as the flag went up for offside.
The Villans finally broke the deadlock in the 74th minute, courtesy of a stunning bit of play from Bailey. Receiving the ball from Youri Tielemans, the ambitious wideman danced his way to the edge of the box before deciding to pull the trigger. The well-struck effort took a deflection off Ruben Diaz to zip past a helpless Ederson. The hosts came agonizingly close to doubling their lead in the 86th minute, but the post kept Luiz from getting on the scoresheet.
The 1-0 win over the mighty Manchester City marked Aston Villa’s 14th victory on the bounce at Villa Park. It also allowed them to climb to third place in the Premier League rankings, pushing City down to fourth.
Liverpool and Arsenal Benefit From City’s Misfortunes
After Wednesday’s defeat, Manchester City have dropped down to the last Champions League spot, with Guardiola’s side amassing 30 points from 15 matches this season. Their misfortunes have greatly benefitted Premier League aspirants Arsenal and Liverpool, who now have healthy leads over City.
Arsenal, who came second in the Premier League race last season, currently sit at the summit of the Premier League, having secured 36 points from 15 matches. Liverpool, meanwhile, have climbed to second place with 34 points on the board. Both the Gunners and the Reds came out on top in their recent Premier League outings. While Arsenal picked up a 4-3 win over Luton Town on Tuesday, Liverpool bagged a straightforward 2-0 victory at Sheffield United on Wednesday.
