Aston Villa 1 Manchester City 0: match reportCity’s good run of results ends with Villa Park defeat as Cash scores defining goal of the game to secure win
Manchester City were defeated 1-0 by Aston Villa on Sunday. The Blues had been in a good run of form but the result ends this streak and kickstarts a tough run of fixtures for City. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Gvardiol, Dias, and Stones were the back four. Reijnders, Foden, and Bernardo Silva were in midfield with Savinho, Bobb, and Haaland in attack.
In the first ten minutes of the game, City were in control and dominated possession. They had a few chances early on, with Reijnders only narrowly missing from the edge of the box. Aston Villa looked dangerous whenever they countered the Blues however, and greatly tested the City defence, with Stones having to make an important block of a shot from McGinn. Following a clash between Nunes and Watkins, the ball went behind for a corner, a decision that was contested by Nunes, who believed that he had been fouled.
The corner proved to be costly for City, as the ball rebounded outside of the box to Villa fullback Matty Cash, who took a long shot and sent the ball sailing into the bottom right corner to give Villa the lead 19 minutes in. City’s early domination was now in vain. Villa were well organised on the day and troubled the Blues for the remainder of the match. Haaland almost equalised just moments after the goal but his shot was saved comfortably by Martinez.
Villa themselves also had the chances to double their lead with Mcginn firing a shot just wide of the bottom right corner, the same place Cash had scored. Savinho had a huge opportunity to equalise in the second half with two shots on goal but both of which were blocked by the Villa defence, Pau Torres blocking one of his shots off the line and sending it behind for a corner. City also had 6 corners in the game but were unable to make anything off them. Substitutes were made with Doku, Cherki, Marmoush, Gonzalez, and O’Reilly all coming on to try and make a difference, but it wasn’t City’s day. In the 90th minute, Marmoush crossed the ball into Haaland, who bumbled the ball in but the linesman raised his flag and City celebrations were cut short. Villa saw the game out and took all three points with a 1-0 victory.
The result marks the fourth consecutive season that City have failed to win at Villa Park and now puts them fourth in the Premier League, six points behind leaders Arsenal. They face Swansea away midweek in the Carabao Cup before facing Bournemouth at home next weekend. While it’s still early in the season, the Blues will certainly need to be better than they were today in these tough fixtures if they are to be competitive for trophies and not have a repeat of last season.
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