Five stats to explain Aston Villa's 2-1 win vs Manchester City

Aston Villa’s victory against Manchester City featured top performances at both ends of the pitch, as Unai Emery’s side claimed back-to-back Premier League victories and their first at Villa Park.

Here are five stats that tell the story of how Villa came out on top:

Jackson’s clinical finishing

Perhaps the simplest stat to explain Villa’s win on Saturday is the fact they scored two goals from two shots on target, both of course coming from Nicolas Jackson.

Villa’s striker is on a roll, having scored four times in the last four Premier League games, and his ability to turn half-chances into goals has been key early in the season, as well as against Man City.

His first goal was a tremendous bit of play to send Elliot Anderson flying by before smashing the ball into the roof of the net, and although City’s goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made an error to help the second one in, Jackson deserves credit for his part in it.

He has a real knack for catching goalkeepers out with snapshots from the edge of the box, shooting before they are set and generating a surprising amount of power with very little backlift. Jackson’s two goals against Fenerbahce and the one against Spurs were similar examples.

The concern with Jackson when he signed was that he has missed too many chances in the past. Early in his Villa career it has been the opposite, as his ruthlessness on the edge of the penalty area has been a huge asset.

Suzuki saves the day

Zion Suzuki has already answered many of the questions surrounding his ability to replace Emi Martinez, but the biggest one that remained was whether he could consistently make the kind of ‘wow’ saves Martinez routinely did.

Saturday was his best performance in that regard, as according to Fotmob he prevented 1.68 goals against Manchester City based on the expected goals (xG) they created. Prior to that game, he was at -0.53 goals prevented in the Premier League.

He made two absolutely crucial stops to help Villa on the way to victory, one at 1-1 as he flicked Josko Gvardiol’s powerful drive onto the crossbar and another at 2-1, racing out of his goal to deny Gvardiol again from close range after a miss-kick from Emi Buendia set the City man through.

Suzuki looks like he was built in a lab to play goalkeeper. All of his tools have been on display so far and Villa were very thankful to have him on Saturday.

Cash’s career day

Matty Cash produced one of the best defensive games of his career against the usually irrepressible Jeremy Doku, keeping him contained for much of the day and taking the fight to him, pulling off a risky tactic of pushing up onto the winger’s back before he could get started.

By the end of the game, Cash’s eight tackles were the most by any player on either side, while only Boubacar Kamara had more defensive contributions as a whole among Villa players (16 to 13).

Cash seems to keep getting better every year he plays under Unai Emery, and Villa do not win that game on Saturday without his defensive resilience.

Torres’ key role

Pau Torres was in the starting lineup and played 90 minutes for just the second time in the Premier League this season against City, and played a huge part in Villa’s victory.

The centre-back completed more passes (52) than any other Villa player, and in fact no other Villa player had more than 35. With one of those passes he found Jackson around the halfway line, who scored the winning goal moments later.

It has been a stuttering start to the season for Torres, partially due to an injury picked up against Nottingham Forest. His performance against City was a great reminder of his qualities though, as he improved his record against them to five wins from six.

Skipper sets the tone

John McGinn’s importance to Aston Villa cannot be overstated, and the captain put in another brilliant display on Saturday, creating four chances (including the opening goal), which was more than any other Villa player.

His performance was emblematic of the team, especially early in the game as Villa gave their opponents very little respect, looking to steal the ball high up the pitch, as happened for Jackson’s first goal.

McGinn pounced on the loose touch from Marc Guehi and slid the ball through to his striker, who did the rest. Villa’s skipper really is one of a kind and continues to be irreplaceable.