Aston Villa 2 Manchester City 1 - Matt Maher analysis - video Dailymotion

Aston Villa 2 Manchester City 1 - Matt Maher analysis

Transcript

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.