A surprise happened in the Premier League round-of-15 series. At home, Aston Villa defeated Man City with the minimum score.
Man City is missing many stars
Injuries and penalties from a series of key players prevented coach Pep Guardiola from fielding the team he wanted in this round. The important people absent are De Bruyne, Rodri, Grealish, and Doku.
19-year-old midfielder Rico Lewis was given the starting role in this match. The central defender duo Stones-Akanji were even pulled up by Pep to play central midfield.
Obviously, those disturbances caused Man City to completely lose strength. In just the first 7 minutes of the match, Ederson’s goal continuously wobbled before Aston Villa’s sharp attacks. The Brazilian goalkeeper had to show off his talent to save twice.
On the other hand, Haaland also had the opportunity to test Emiliano Martinez’s skills with two consecutive close-range shots in the 11th minute. But the Argentine goalkeeper won both.
It’s hard to believe, but that’s all of Man City’s shots in this match. The away team was completely defeated for the rest of the match.
Except for the amount of ball control, Aston Villa outperforms Man City in every important parameter. They launched 22 shots (Man City only 2), won 7 aerial duels (Man City 4) and had 15 successful passes (Man City 2).
Those parameters completely reflect the match situation. Aston Villa played explosively and appeared dangerous in every situation on the ball.
The excellence of Ederson (6 saves) and the goalpost continuously saved Man City. But whatever comes must come. In the 74th minute, Aston Villa opened the scoring with a rather lucky ball.
From a breakthrough in the middle, Bailey turned the ball past Gvardiol and finished right in front of the penalty area. The ball hit the Man City defender’s foot and changed direction, leaving goalkeeper Ederson helpless.
Aston Villa surpassed Man City
And that was also the only goal of the match. In the end, Aston Villa won 1-0 against Man City. This result even helped Aston Villa (32 points) surpass Man City (30 points) to take 3rd place on the rankings.
In the previous match, Liverpool defeated Sheffield United away from home by a score of 2-0. The scorers for the “red brigade” were Van Dijk (minute 37) and Szoboszlai (minute 90+4).
Facing the bottom-ranked opponent, Coach Klopp made many personnel changes in this match. Nunez, Gravenberch, and Tsimikas were placed on the bench.
The competition was not too explosive, but the outstanding quality of players helped Liverpool dominate the game and score important goals to continue chasing Arsenal in the championship race. After round 15, Liverpool has 34 points, 2 points behind top team Arsenal.