> **Villa’s win over Manchester City leaves Dave Woodhall smiling.**
**I’ve often said that one of the reasons Villa so often fail to take the final step is that we’re forever expecting things to go wrong. When a team are on a losing run or a striker is out of form, there’s always a fatalism that it’s against Villa when they’ll put it right.**
Every other set of supporters might think the same, I don’t know, and someone with more time on their hands than me might be able to work out whether we’re more susceptible to teams who are low on confidence. For the moment, though, there was the usual apprehension that 12.30 on Saturday would be the time when Manchester City started playing like champions again, and their £100 million superstar would finally justify both his fee and his undoubted talent.
By 12.31 that idea had been kicked out of the ground as Villa could have had two goals in the first minute, the second bringing out a save that would have had Emiliano Martinez nodding in approval. Fifteen minutes later any thoughts that Villa would pay for those missed opportunities went the same way when Youri Tielemans’ perfect ball to Morgan Rogers was squared for Jhon Duran to score, again. although this one was a bit more straightforward than his usual efforts.
It might only have been one-nil at half-time but only the most pessimistic of Villa supporters would have thought there was any danger of throwing this one away. If anything, Villa were even better after the break. Rogers should have scored when he hit the post from close range but made up when carrying the ball from deep in a way that brought back memories of another player on the pitch before laying it off and receiving the return from John McGinn to put Villa two up after 65 minutes.
From then on ‘dominance’ would be an understatement. Villa should have had another two or three goals, Ollie Watkins missing a particularly good one on one after coming on as a late sub for Duran. Tielemans was at his majestic best, playing in front of a central duo of Boubacar Kamara and Amadou Onana that was totally dominant, and it won’t be the last time that’s said about them. When Villa’s midfield are fit and on form there’s none better in the league.
There were no more goals except a late one from the visitors that caused a few momentary feelings of anxiety but Villa managed to see out the game with no further worries. It was last December when Villa beat City and then Arsenal to set up hopes of a title challenge. Annoyingly, that was followed by twelve months where the team have been too inconsistent, but this result might have kick-started Villa into a run of similar unbeatable form.
And finally, as Christmas is a time for looking back it was nice to see a vintage display from our former hero, running around the Villa Park pitch unchallenged as he faultlessly laid off ball after inch-perfect ball to a claret and blue shirt. It was just like old times.
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