Five defeats and only one victory in the last seven games in the Premier League. Four points from the last 21. These are the horrible numbers of Manchester City, who this Saturday also knelt at Villa Park against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa. Outside of European positions, depending on the results, City could finish the day in eighth position.
Pep Guardiola failed to find the key, once again, at Villa Park and his team was a shadow of what he had accustomed everyone to for eight years. The citizens were surpassed in all aspects of the game by a much better planted Aston Villa on the field that allowed itself to be dominated in the first half and knew how to govern the duel in the second. City were only able to shoot at Dibu Martínez’s goal twice, the last in stoppage time.
At the beginning Guardiola’s team came out willingly, but the dominance they exerted was more positional than effective. The well-established defense of Emery’s men prevented them from entering the area with any danger, while Villa was capable of counterattacking with many players. In one of those quick plays came the first of the match, the work of Jhon Durán, who took advantage of a pass from Rodgers, the best of the match.
After conceding the first goal, a reaction was expected that never came. Only one play in which Bernardo Silva and Foden teamed up allowed the English winger to come close to scoring. But the villain goalkeeper showed a great hand to send the ball for a corner.
After the restart, City were a much more incapable team. Guardiola took a while to remove Gündogan to find more depth with Savinho and Villa hardly suffered. Not only that, but in another individual play by Rodgers he found the second and final goal.
Completely helpless, Guardiola’s men attempted the heroic in the final minutes. It was Foden who found the goal after a defensive error by his rival with a minute left in added time. Haaland, completely unprecedented, was not even able to shoot in the entire game.
This result sinks City a little further into the standings, which has accumulated the worst streak since the arrival of Pep Guardiola. Losses due to injury and lack of confidence once again undermined the performance of a team, previously dominant, now constantly beaten.
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