Aston Villa – Manchester City 2-1: The crisis depends on Guardiola

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Manchester City will head into Christmas with some serious issues to sort out after their remarkable fall from grace continued at Villa Park this afternoon.

Pep Guardiola’s side have managed just one win in 12 games in all competitions after goals from Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers gave Aston Villa a deserved three points.

Indeed, it could have been a much heavier defeat as City were lucky before Duran’s 16th-minute opener with Rogers settling for half of the second half.

Phil Foden pulled one back in stoppage time for the four-time defending Premier League champions, but they still look miles from their best conqueror.

Despite their injuries, City were a disorganized mess and could end the weekend as low as ninth in the Premier League table.

Guardiola left Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne on the bench, while Villa’s squad news was highlighted by the inclusion of Duran ahead of Ollie Watkins.

The first opportunities are asking for Villa

The Colombian forward almost made manager Unai Emery pay within 19 seconds. Josko Gvardiol collided with the ball, allowing John McGinn to cut in and set Duran on goal, but his shot was too early and Stefan Ortega got down well to save.

The German excelled from the resulting corner, leaping to his left to push Pau Torres’ header under the crossbar without the ball being able to cross the line by millimetres.

City were all over the place defensively and it was no surprise that they broke the deadlock shortly after the quarter-hour mark.

The excellent Youri Tielemans picked out Rogers down the left and his unselfish cross was perfect for Duran to fire into the net.

Jack Grealish, who played the role of pantomime villain against his former club, was City’s only bright spark as he gave Matty Cash a torrid time down Villa’s right flank. His probing allowed Foden to fire a shot at goal which brought a fine save from Emiliano Martínez before Grealish himself saw an effort blocked by the Argentinian goalkeeper.

Walker replaced John Stones at half-time but did little to consolidate the visitors’ backline with Cash wasting a good chance three minutes from the restart, firing into the side netting instead of picking out a Villa shirt in the box .

Duran had a goal disallowed for offside after 50 minutes before Rogers fired against the base of the left post with Guardiol again slow.

Rogers punishes old club

A second goal seemed imminent and it arrived on 65 minutes. This time it was former City man Rogers in goal after he started and finished a move that saw him played through by McGinn.

Watkins was introduced by Duran and almost made an immediate impact, with Ortega making a good save with a low shot.

Foden managed to score his first league goal of the season in stoppage time, capitalizing on good work from substitute Savinho, but it was scant consolation for City’s problems continued.



 
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