Aston Villa 2: 1 Manchester City
Pep Guardiola’s team seems to have lost all confidence, unable to get anything right on the pitch.
Failure seems to be tightening its grip on Manchester City more and more each day. Despite scoring a late goal at Villa Park, the Premier League’s four-time defending champions couldn’t avoid defeat.
The hosts won the league match 2-1 on Saturday. Aston Villa took the lead early with a goal from Jhon Durán, and Morgan Rodgers doubled the advantage. Phil Foden pulled one back for City in the final moments.
This marks City’s second consecutive loss in the Premier League and their sixth loss in the last eight matches; they’ve won only one and drawn another.
City has now failed to win in their last three league matches at Villa Park. After a 1-1 draw in 2022, Guardiola’s team suffered a 1-0 defeat here last December.
This victory pushes Villa up two places in the table. With eight wins and four draws from 17 matches, they now sit in fifth place with 28 points, one point ahead of City, who have 27 points.
The coordination between City’s midfield and attack is broken, and their defense is in disarray. Their recent performances reflect this, as they were nearly caught off guard within 20 seconds of the match. Defender Josko Gvardiol’s mistake allowed Durán to take a shot, which was brilliantly saved by goalkeeper Stefan Ortega.
In the following minute, Villa attacked again. Ortega was forced to make another great save from Pau Torres’ header off a corner, with replays showing that the ball had nearly crossed the goal line.
In the first 10 minutes, Villa took two more shots at goal. Finally, in the 16th minute, they got their goal from their fifth attempt.
The goal highlighted City’s fragile defense. A clearance from the goalkeeper was intercepted by Yuri Tielemans in midfield, who made a superb pass to Morgan Rodgers. Though Rodgers could have taken the shot himself, he passed to Durán on the right. Durán struck powerfully to give Villa the lead.
Despite holding over 75% possession in the first 30 minutes, City couldn’t find their rhythm. Their confidence seems to have shaken under the weight of successive failures.
In the 35th minute, City created their first clear chance, but Foden’s effort was superbly denied by Emiliano Martínez.
The pattern didn’t change after the break. Although City had dominated possession in the first half, they struggled to maintain it in the second.
In the 60th minute, City narrowly avoided conceding a second goal when Rodgers’ shot hit the post. But they couldn’t hold off Villa for long. Five minutes later, Rodgers, receiving a pass in the box, beat Ortega with a precise shot.
In the third minute of added time, Foden’s goal briefly gave City hope. However, they couldn’t spark any further drama and the game ended in defeat.
