From the Telegraph, copied the bits that are mostly about city but some mention of the other team. I have not pasted the other 3/4 that is all about city.
Operation ‘Stop Haaland’ works as Villa spike City’s biggest gun
Defeat at Aston Villa exposes over-reliance on Norwegian striker. Plus: Bernardo Silva slams team for being ‘really bad defensively’
Jason Burt
Chief Football Correspondent, at Villa Park
There was only one chance for him. It came soon after Villa took their first-half lead, with Matty Cash scoring from a smartly-worked corner routine, but he shot too close to goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. It was an opportunity he would have expected to take and maybe should have taken. But it cannot all be on him.
Afterwards Unai Emery was asked how Haaland can be stopped. “Tactically and individual performances to get duels with him, with the power we showed. And then some help, cover, and the goalkeeper. We needed everything to stop him,” the Villa manager said.
Interestingly, he chose Amadou Onana alongside Boubacar Kamara in central midfield to add more height and power in that bid to stop Haaland with centre-halves Ezri Konsa and Pau Torres doubling up on him. Haaland had just four touches in the Villa penalty area.
But that should create more space for City’s other attacking players and, Foden apart, they struggled. It was no surprise that Guardiola substituted both wingers with Oscar Bobb and Savinho failing to make an impact. Jérémy Doku provided more of a threat but, again, it was not enough.
City will point to some last-ditch vital blocks to prevent goal-bound shots, with Foden and substitute Nico González denied by Onana and replacement Ross Barkley. There was also a remarkable goal-line clearance from Torres who somehow turned a Savinho volley over the crossbar. Konsa puffed out his cheeks to show how close it was while Torres punched the air.
City had 16 shots but, in truth, did not do enough. Too often they played in front of a disciplined Villa side who defended compactly and broke swiftly and intelligently.
The reliance on Haaland is almost rivalled by their dependence on Rodri. Without him, and with González not fit enough to start after a foot problem, Reijnders was asked to play as the defensive midfielder. It did not work.
Neither did asking John Stones to step into midfield from centre-half as that left Rúben Dias exposed, especially as Ollie Watkins had one of those hard-running, quicksilver games that has made him an England international. He did not score but his contribution, like that of former City player Morgan Rogers, was outstanding.
It enabled Villa to beat City here for the third season in a row and, in doing so, they won a fourth top-flight league game in succession for the first time since 1936. That achievement is all the more remarkable given they had not won any of their first five fixtures and having lost so disappointingly away to Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League. Suddenly they are up to eighth.
But this was the best of the lot, capped by a goal from Cash – fresh from signing a new contract. They call him the “Polish Cafu” and it was a strike the Brazilian would have been proud of as the ball was played short from a corner and the right-back ran in on the edge of the area to sweep a left foot shot back across Gianluigi Donnarumma.
It was the goalkeeper’s first defeat since joining City. In the dugout Villa’s set-piece coach Austin MacPhee, on crutches and back after three games following knee surgery, smiled broadly – even if Cash later admitted the pull-back was not meant for him.
City protested the corner should not have been awarded but they had time to respond. Worryingly for them they could not do so. They cannot keep expecting Haaland to do it for them.
However the City manager did also criticise his side. “In the first-half the pressing wasn’t good, in the second half it was better. We were not aggressive enough,” he admitted.
Villa manager Unai Emery celebrated his team’s fourth successive league win – having failed to win any of their first five games. “We started pretty poor this season and we had doubts. And how we are reacting against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend [winning 2-1] and especially today has been really fantastic.”
Emery also substituted a substitute, Jadon Sancho, but said: “It’s not a punishment. It’s a plan.”
He added that the winger’s minutes were being managed as he works his way back to fitness.
