Aston Villa v Man City Post-Match Thread

[ROBBO]

He bought on for his pace, he did okay but looked as if he was a new player getting used to his teammates, I think Emery will get a lot out of him, give him time.

[john e]

We play better and match up to sides who don’t play with a low block

we really have to find a way of breaking down teams who employ that system, we dominate possession we have all our attacking players on but we don’t create the chances we need to win games, and then against Go Ahead we did create chances in the first half but decided to balls them all up including a pen

Playing against a low block is still our Achilles heel

[Border villan]

Not sure I was there.

The Times reporter from B6 was the well named Tom Allnutt. He had the pleasure of reporting on a very different game than the one most of us thought we saw.
In the first 5 paragraphs Arsenal, you read that correctly, get 4 namechecks, the winning team have to do with 2. As he develops his story the domination of one of the greedy six is there for all to read and we make up the numbers.
I am sure the match I watched had Kamara booked and one of the “big clubs” had 4 booked but in his report Tom does not mention this.
My conclusion can only be that we were the luckiest club to have ever dared to beat a proper club, thanks Tom for your objective reporting.

[rob_bridge]

I sometimes think the interns are given carte blanche as editors at the weekend of such periodicals.

[olaftab]

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.

[Drummond]

Foden is a whiney, dirty little shit.

[LeeB]

Foden is a whiney, dirty little shit.

He's just a shit Morgan Rogers.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Foden is a whiney, dirty little shit.

He's just a shit Morgan Rogers.

Highlight of the second half. It came over so loud on TV, like the whole ground were singing it.

[dieavillain]

Amazing performance. I think it will come as a surprise as I feel like most predictions would favour a man city win (https://www.theyscored.com/football/match-summary/aston-villa-vs-manchester-city/3682416). But we've been having an extremely great record at them at home in recent times!

[Astral Weeks]

The Guardian's "10 Talking Points From the Weekend's Action" chose to devote its entire section on the Villa game to discussing Harvey Elliott, a player who did not feature in the match at all:

Elliott must wait for a chance
Aston Villa earned a statement victory against Manchester City to make it four straight top-flight wins but Harvey Elliott, who joined from Liverpool last month in search of game time, was a high profile absentee. Unai Emery explained Elliott’s performances across a total of 167 minutes in a Villa shirt simply did not warrant a place in the matchday squad, particularly given the return to form of Morgan Rogers and the rebirth of Emiliano Buendía, who was forced off against City approaching the half-hour and left Villa Park on crutches. Elliott was withdrawn at half-time on his sole league start for Villa, against his former club Fulham last month, and last featured as a 86th-minute substitute at Feyenoord at the start of October. Elliott left Anfield in search of regular minutes but has found them hard to come by. “I spoke with him about it,” Emery said. “My advice was: keep going. He is a very good player. Our demands are on a high level. He needs time to work and wait for his moment.

[Dave]

I wasn't overly impressed by Sancho, he seemed very reluctant to run at Nunes - but it wouldn't surprise me if that was under instruction.

I think he also suffered by not being as dynamic as Buendia was before he came on, and not as involved in seeing out the result as Guessand was when he went off. He was there for the middle "manage the game" bit rather than the bits that got everyone on their feet. And they all managed the game really well, so...job done I guess.

How did your young fella enjoy the atmosphere in the Holte ?

He had a lovely time thanks eamonn. Picked up plenty of choice chants to repeat back to his grandparents over dinner.

[Hookeysmith]

And folk think we are paranoid when we say the established media do not like us - it is obvious they do not

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Other than the win and three points, the real delight was our first half performance. Okay, we a a dodgy first ten minutes but thereafter it was fluid, one touch football with Man City chasing shadows as we added pace to possession. The movement was constant and intelligent, if the through ball wasn't there just keep the ball moving, quick sharp passes, keep looking for options but above all keep it moving. It was brilliant to watch.

We've shown signs previously that we can play some beautiful football but it's always been in short spells rather than a prolonged period like yesterday. It was certainly the best half of the season and what made it better was all the players were comfortable with it. Pep certainly noticed it and was highly impressed given his post match comments, and he wasn't wrong.

I'd love us to score more goals, something we've failed to do so far this season but right now I'll take us winning games, it's a lovely habit to have. Play like we did in the first half and Pep may have a point about us being "a Champions League team, a top, top team".

[LeeB]

That bastard keeps showering us with praise in a clear attempt to make me like him a bit.

[Beard82]

The Guardian's "10 Talking Points From the Weekend's Action" chose to devote its entire section on the Villa game to discussing Harvey Elliott, a player who did not feature in the match at all:

Elliott must wait for a chance
Aston Villa earned a statement victory against Manchester City to make it four straight top-flight wins but Harvey Elliott, who joined from Liverpool last month in search of game time, was a high profile absentee. Unai Emery explained Elliott’s performances across a total of 167 minutes in a Villa shirt simply did not warrant a place in the matchday squad, particularly given the return to form of Morgan Rogers and the rebirth of Emiliano Buendía, who was forced off against City approaching the half-hour and left Villa Park on crutches. Elliott was withdrawn at half-time on his sole league start for Villa, against his former club Fulham last month, and last featured as a 86th-minute substitute at Feyenoord at the start of October. Elliott left Anfield in search of regular minutes but has found them hard to come by. “I spoke with him about it,” Emery said. “My advice was: keep going. He is a very good player. Our demands are on a high level. He needs time to work and wait for his moment.

I know but he's on Loan from Liverpool which is much more interesting than anything Villa coudl ever do