Aston Villa 2 Manchester City 1 - Matt Maher analysis
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00:00Good evening from Villa Park, where Villa are celebrating another win over Manchester City.
00:09This one probably won't get the same levels of praise as their 1-0 win last season,
00:15simply because Manchester City are in a bit of a sticky patch, or a very sticky patch at the moment.
00:20But this was an equally as dominant performance from Villa against Pep Guardiola's team.
00:27A 2-1 win, but the game was never that close.
00:31Phil Floden scored with virtually the last kick of the game for City,
00:35and up to that point Villa were comfortable.
00:38They could have gone in front in the first 20 seconds through John Duran.
00:42They could have been in front a few seconds later through Pep Torres.
00:46John Duran eventually put them in front 16 minutes in,
00:49taking on a pass from Morgan Rodgers and finishing past Stefan Ortega.
00:54Then Rodgers himself, who was excellent all game, got the second goal 20 minutes into the second half.
01:00Villa had already had a second goal ruled out at that point for a narrow offside decision.
01:05Rodgers had hit the post. This could have been far more comprehensive.
01:10City are struggling. They have now lost nine of their last 12 games in all competitions,
01:16and they are clearly not the force they have been over recent years.
01:22They are a team that clearly needs a refresh, but they are still a good team.
01:27You look at the start at XI, still full of quality,
01:30and Villa made them look second best by quite a distance.
01:35This was Villa's most impressive performance of the season so far,
01:39and one which should give them a lot of confidence heading into another big game at Newcastle on Boxing Day.
01:46The kind of performance you felt Villa needed in what has been a stop-start season,
01:52and I don't think there is any surprise really that it has come after they have had a break of seven days,
01:57and for the first time Unai Emery has been able to work with his players on the training ground.
02:02We also saw significantly Amadou Anana and Boubacar Kamara start for the first time in central midfield,
02:08and Villa really dominated that area of the pitch, so that was really promising moving forward.
02:13Duran, Rodgers, excellent all-round, great day for Villa.