Manchester City returned to Premier League action this Saturday after a couple of weeks away and faced Alex McLeish’s Aston Villa side who, like City were undefeated going into the game.
City, as previously thought, had a number of their high profile and ‘creative’ players out of the starting lineup with Nasri, Silva and Dzeko all starting from the bench and Aguero missing the game altogether. Obviously Mancini had the vitally important Champions League clash on his mind when selecting the side and so the question was could a City side without these key players still perform. The answer was a resounding ‘yes!’
Villa for their part started with two attacking players AND Emile Heskey in their lineup as well as ex City trio, Dunne, Given and Ireland, but it was to be City’s day. Mancinis men had almost two thirds of the possession and double the amount of shots as Villa on a day that also had seen United drop points. In fairness if it wasn’t for another Hernandez equaliser City would have found themselves top going into their match. As it was they knew a win would see them clear and all just in time for the trip to Old Trafford next Sunday.
Despite the scoreline and the ease that City got that victory it was actually the Villa striker, Agbonlahor who had the best chance with Joe Hart saving well from his English team mate. It took City almost half an hour to get on the scoresheet. Good work down the flank by Johnson and Richards eventually led to a City corner which was delivered by Johnson. Villa didn’t clear their lines and it fell to the feet of Balotelli. Although Mario had his back to goal hs still managed to open the scoring with a sweet placed overhead kick. That would be the difference going into the break.
Both teams restarted the game with no changes and two minutes in Steve Warnocks error led to City doubling the lead. A slip from the Villa defender allowed the City man to slip the ball home past Given from just inside the area. City new boys, Yaya and Clichy, make the old boys, Dunne and Ireland look foolish with some great play before releasing the ball to Balotelli who is brought down but the referee waves play on.
Not to worry though as City would soon add a third through prolific goal scorer Vincent Kompany. Again, like the first it was from a corner, only this time it was delivered to the head of Vinny who guides his header past the arms of Given. After that Villa changed it around a little bringing on N’Zogbia for Ireland before then also bringing off Heskey off for Bannan ten minutes later.
Instantly Villa clawed one back through second goal culprit, Warnock. To be fair to City, at the time, Micah Richards was off the field getting treatment. Mancini chose this time to bring on Kolo for the injured Micah and City had returned to their three goal advantage six minutes later.
You new an ex player was going to score against his ex team and on this day it was James Milner. Certainly a good goal as he curled it home from 20 yards, giving Given no chance. There was no celebration from the former Villa man but the City fans certainly made up for that with theirs. The rest of the game was played out just because it had to be. To be fair the game had been over as contest since the Johnson strike, the only point of interest was the Manchester City Premier League debut of Owen Hargreaves who came on in the 77th minute for that man Johnson. Job well done, top of the league and no signs of slowing.