MAN CITY 4, ASTON VILLA 1
Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, both unused substitutes, were hardly missed as Phil Foden stepped up to the plate.
The player, known as Stockport’s Iniesta, scored a hat-trick as Manchester City soundly beat Aston Villa, their first victory of the season against a top-five side.
Apart from his second treble of 2024, some of Foden’s play was mesmeric as he underlined his burgeoning talent helping City extend their unbeaten run to 24 games in all competitions – their last defeat was at Aston Villa is December.
He made it 20 goals and 10 assists for the season – one of only five players in Europe’s top five league to achieve the feat this season. What makes those stats even more impressive is the fact that none of the goals have been penalties.
Rodri, the scorer of City’s other goal, lavished praise on Foden, saying: “With this player he grows every single year. He can score whatever he wants, arriving in the box, he has a special quality, three today and so happy for him.”
City manager Pep Guardiola also paid tribute to Foden, but believes he can become even better as he can become “distracted”,
He said: “What can I say – he scored three goals.
“He didn’t start well but the goals helped his mood in the second half. Phil has goals and he proved it again.
Embed from Getty Images“He can do whatever he wants. He is a top-class player and has natural talent which is special.
“He has an incredible sense of goal, and you feel he is always going to score – that is not easy to find it.”
Of the game, Guardiola said: “We played a really good game. At Villa Park they were better. Today we were better.
“We missed a lot of chances, but we created a lot. We played really good inside with Phil, Rico [Lewis] and Rodri. Wides were really good with Jack [Grealish] and Jeremy [Doku] so we made a good game. We created a lot and could’ve scored more goals.”
On resting Haaland and De Bruyne, Guardiola continued: “They could play and rest other players. We put the players out to win it not just to rest players.
“We need fresh legs and we only played three days ago against Arsenal. We needed it because of the schedule so we needed the rest.”
Villa manager Unai Emery said: “We competed until the third goal but it’s difficult to beat them here. They showed their power they are in contention for title again. We competed, we tried to do what we can do good, but they showed their power so congratulations to them.
“We tried to get tight but then they scored the third goal and it’s more difficult, so we tried to manage the 90 minutes and get something.”
Haaland, Mateo Kovacic and De Bruyne all dropped to the bench as Guardiola made four changes to the team that drew 0-0 with Arsenal last time out.
Jack Grealish, Jeremy Doku, Julian Alvarez and Lewis were given starts.
Nathan Ake was ruled out through injury. John Stones, who picked up a knock on England duty, was among the City substitutes.
Emery made six changes to the Villa team that beat Wolves 2-0 on Saturday.
Lucas Digne, Clement Lenglet, Nicolo Zaniolo, Jhon Duran and Tim Iroegbunam all started.
Ollie Watkins was sidelined with a hamstring issue. Pau Torres, Alex Moreno, Youri Tielemans and Leon Bailey all dropped to the bench.
And there was a late change when keeper Emiliano Martinez pulled out 30 minutes before kick off through illness to be replaced by Robin Olsen.
Alvarez flashed a shot into the side netting and Rodri forced a diving save from Olsen before the breakthrough came in the 11th minute.
Doku cut the ball back from the right and Rodri crashed a shot from seven yards into the roof of the net, his eighth goal of the season.
Villa equalised in the 20th minute after an incisive counterattack which ended with Duran playing a one-two with Morgan Rogers before firing an angled shot low into the far corner.
It was the 20-year-old Colombian’s sixth goal of the season.
Grealish and Alvarez both had good chances to regain the lead for City before Foden put them back in front in the first of four added minutes.
Foden was brought down by Douglas Luiz 25 yards from goal and he picked himself up to score from the dead ball.
Emery will be unhappy as the defensive wall parted enabling Foden to thread the free kick low into the bottom corner.
They might have extended it further as Olsen pulled off an athletic save to turn over Alvarez’ header.
City had two great chances to forge further ahead soon after the restart, but Olsen saved well to deny Doku and Bernardo Silva.
Villa remained a threat and City keeper Stefan Ortega had to pull off two important stops in quick succession to deny Luiz and Clement Lenglet.
City eased nerves when Foden netted his second and 20th of the season just after the hour.
Rodri made a powerful burst forward and slotted a pass to Foden who stroked home a low shot from the edge of the box which went in off the upright.
Foden completed his hat-trick in the 69th minute with the pick of his goals. Lenglet gave the ball away as he failed to clear defensive danger as Foden arrowed a left foot shot into the top corner from the edge of the box.
City made their first two changes with 15 minutes left as Rodri and Silva made way for Matheus Nunes and Mateo Kovacic.
That was soon followed by a further two as Doku and Foden were replaced by Sergio Gomes and Oscar Bobb.
City almost added a fifth in stoppage time when Gomez struck the outside of the upright with a low shot which followed a dazzling forward burst by Josko Gvardiol.