Manchester City’s crisis deepened on Saturday as they crumbled to another damaging 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa.
Jhon Duran and Morgan Rogers goals gave Villa the victory with Phil Foden’s late goal for the visitors serving as little consolation.
Manchester City have dropped to sixth in the Premier League, nine points behind leaders Liverpool having played two games more, while Villa have moved above them into fifth position.
It is now nine defeats in 12 games in all competitions for City, who are without a win in their last eight away matches, as their season continue to nosedive.
Pep Guardiola made six changes from the Manchester derby defeat last week but it made little difference in the encounter.
Villa, who had won just three of their previous 11 top-flight games, earned the much-needed victory, one which keeps their top-four hopes alive.
They were rarely troubled during the match, although Emi Martinez did well frustrating Foden in the first half, and Villa overpowered Manchester City with their weak defence
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The tone was set inside the first minute as City relied on Stefan Ortega, who stood for the injured Ederson, to bail them out twice.
He brilliantly turned Pau Torres’ header over the bar, the goalkeeper held the ball out from almost over the line, having already saved from Duran following Josko Gvardiol’s mistake after just 15 seconds.
The worse came after 16 minutes when City were sliced open by Youri Tielemans’ brilliant through-pass. He found Rogers to advance and unselfishly square for Duran to beat Ortega.
City were unable to respond until it was too late and Rogers, who spent two years at Etihad Stadium without making a senior appearance, sealed victory for Villa with a fine low finish after 65 minutes, making Foden’s injury-time strike meaningless.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
