There’s no league like the Premier League. It doesn’t matter what they say. This was shown in a historic victory for Aston Villa against Manchester City after a beautiful and very open game judged by Leon Bailey, who led Villa’s Park to the explosion (1-0).
Fourteen games later, Unai Emery finally managed to beat his great rival Pep Guardiola. He couldn’t beat very good competitive teams like Valencia and Arsenal, and it was in the most unexpected way, that Aston Villa went 13 games in a row without losing and overtook City themselves in the table to be placed third , when they do.
This is a game to watch again. Far from going out to stop the bus, Emery played a brave game, taking risks and leading his rival to make mistakes. many. Too much even for what we’re used to in Guardiola’s team, which always glosses over those details. To a large extent, that was the fault of the absence of Rodri, who was suspended, and the scale of the placement of John Stones and Rico Lewis, two players who do not naturally play in midfield, took its toll.
It’s not that Aston Villa is better, it’s better. Manchester City went through hell, not only because of the verticality of Bailey and Watkins, guarded by a titanic McGinn, but also because of the pressure exerted by Kamara, Tielemans and Douglas Luiz and the composure of Pau Torres and Diego Carlos who scored to Haaland. The current Premier League champions only shot twice and they were in the same game, the work of the Norwegian, who found a titanic Draw Martínez that won the game. No other.
Quite the opposite to Ederson’s place. The Brazilian did not live a peaceful second. Mainly because of the tension brought on by Villa’s attacks. Before the quarter-hour mark of the game he had already scored two clear, and that was just the beginning. Even Douglas Luiz gave him a warning when the clock was about to break. He scored with a header, but it was disallowed.
Guardiola couldn’t find the key after the break. He wanted to refloat the team by bringing out Julián Álvarez and Lewis to refloat and control the midfield with Kovacic and Matheus Nunes, but not even with those. After the hour mark, McGinn enjoyed a resounding effort that he sent wide and the next time Bailey, with help from a deflection, finally got the prize of the goal (74′).
From there Aston Villa showed they have good team qualities. Far from deciding to retreat, hand over control to City and try to defend their advantage, quite the opposite. He kept his game plan and when he saw Guardiola weakening he tried to finish it off. He almost got it. Furthermore, the post prevented a great goal from Douglas Luiz that was fortunately unnecessary. There is a City to worry about. There are now four games in the Premier League without a win, so we can talk about a crisis.
match lineup
1
4
12
44
3
14
31
6
Eleven
8
7
31
5
25
24
3
2
82
19
9
twenty
47
Villa Park
Ederson31
John Stones5
44′
89′
Manuel Akanji25
86′
Josko Guardiol24
Ruben Dias3
Kyle Walker2
73′
84′
Rico Lewis82
52′
67′
Julian Alvarez19
67′
59′
89′
Erling Haaland9
84′
Bernard Silvatwenty
Phil Foden47
72′
Replacements
Stephen Ortega18
Scott Carson33
89′
Nathan Ake6
Calvin Phillips4
Matthew Kovacic8
67′
Sergio Gomeztwenty-one
84′
Matheus Nunes27
67′
84′
Oscar Bob52
72′
89′
coach
Unai Emery
Pep Guardiola
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
