Aston Villa 2, Manchester City 1
Manchester City’s gloom deepened after they succumbed to a ninth defeat in 12 games at Aston Villa.
Embed from Getty ImagesGoals by Jhon Duran and ex-City midfielder Morgan Rogers did the damage this time with Phil Foden’s injury time goal – his fourth goal of the season – coming too late to make a difference to the a result which was fully deserved by City’s hosts who hit the woodwork twice as they exposed City time and again.
City boss Pep Guardiola had initially left Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne out of a side while injured Ederson was replaced by Stefan Ortega who was forced into early saves including clawing a header by Pau Torres off his own line.
The mistakes kept coming for City who are rumoured to be lining up fresh blood in the January transfer window – but they still have games against Everton and Leicester City before reinforcements can arrive to relieve City’s injury hit squad.
Villa deservedly took the lead after 16 minutes when Youri Tielemens ‘ defence splitting pass found Morgan Rogers who unselfishly squared for Duran, who had earlier been denied by Ortega.
And Villa doubled their lead after 65 minutes after Rogers was found by John McGinn and he turned and shot past Ortega.
City looked feeble in front of goal again with only Phil Foden troubling Emi Martinez and his injury time goal – a left foot finish from 10 yards after Villa failed to clear Savinho’s pass to him – was too late to be anything other than a consolation.
Since a Carabao Cup defeat at the hands of Tottenham on October 30 City have only won one game – against Nottingham Forest, with two draws during the course of the worst run of defeats in Pep Guardiola’s managerial history.
And the pain looks set to continue as Everton will be the next visitors to the the Etihad Stadium – a 12.30pm kick off on Boxing Day.