Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester City: Unai Emery's side answer big question with win
Aston Villa’s recent results had filled fans with optimism after a slow start to the season, but Saturday’s contest with Premier League leaders Manchester City presented the toughest Villa had faced so far.
Unai Emery’s side passed with flying colours, beating Man City 2-1 to claim back-to-back league wins for the first time this season and marking their fourth straight victory over City.
It was a fearless performance, starting from the first whistle as Villa refused to let their visitors settle, pressing high and not giving Enzo Maresca’s side the type of respect many teams might, given they entered the game coming off seven consecutive wins to start the season.
This aggressive approach is what allowed Villa to take a 6th-minute lead, as John McGinn pounced on a loose touch by Marc Guehi to play in Nicolas Jackson, who did what he has been doing consistently since the start of September, firing into the roof of the net past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Villa certainly rode their luck at times, both before and after Erling Haaland’s equaliser, and were indebted to goalkeeper Zion Suzuki, particularly for the save he made at 1-1, tipping a Josko Gvardiol shot onto the crossbar just minutes before Jackson restored the lead at the other end.
Donnarumma should have done better for the winning goal, but Jackson deserves credit for his decisiveness in taking the shot first time, which seemed to catch the City ‘keeper by surprise.
His willingness to take snap shots, and his ability to generate power on them, has already paid off in multiple goals this season.
Villa produced one of their strongest defensive performances of the season in the 1-0 win at Newcastle last weekend, but holding Man City’s attack down is a different task entirely, and Emery’s side needed to play their best defensive game of the season to have a chance at victory.
They met the moment with an ‘all hands on deck’ effort. Matty Cash had the game of his life at right-back to keep Jeremy Doku quiet, especially after picking up a yellow card early in the second half.
Ian Maatsen had more trouble with Iliman Ndiaye on the left side, but put in some shift in his return from injury to hang in there for 90 minutes. Victor Lindelof and Pau Torres defended the box admirably and Boubacar Kamara was a man on a mission, protecting the back line from midfield.
The run Villa had been on in recent weeks – unbeaten in their last six games in all competitions before the match against City – had inspired confidence that the new-look side was heading in the right direction.
The question they still had to answer related to their ceiling. Many of the wins they racked up in recent weeks came against sides of poor quality in comparison to Villa.
Saturday was a test of whether this version of Emery’s team was capable of taking big scalps, and mixing it with the big boys at the top of the table. The herculean effort they put in to beat City, and the quality they showed at both ends of the pitch, emphatically answered: yes.
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