Sven hails ‘mature’ Johnson as City win
Teenage midfielder Michael Johnson was the matchwinner with a well-taken goal in the 48th minute, just as he had been in the single-goal victory over Derby.
Villa fought hard in a frenetic match but were unable to create one real clear chance as City climbed up to second in the early Premier League standings.
City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson hailed the “maturity” of match-winner Michael Johnson.
The 19-year-old has only this season become involved in the England Under-21 squad but his all-round abilities have not gone unnoticed by Eriksson.
He said: “He was excellent. You can’t say if his speciality is attacking, defending, passing, shooting; he can do all these things.
“That’s very rare for a young man. How he took the goal, you must be mature to do that. He had one, two defenders coming at him and he was very calm. He is a very good football player and of course he will be better than that.”
Eriksson insisted Stephen Ireland would be back in the City squad at the next opportunity – fitness permitting.
The Irish midfielder was not in the squad yesterday after a controversial withdrawal from the Republic squad to face the Czech Republic, when he lied to national team management that his grandmother had died in order to be with his girlfriend, who recently had a miscarriage.
“He is young. He’s an extremely good footballer so we can’t afford to lose him. When you are young you make some mistakes, you pay for them and life goes on. He will be ready for the next game, 100% I think so, he loves to play football,” added the Swede.
Johnson’s strike came early in the second half. He exchanged passes with Elano in central midfield, stepped past Laursen and then advanced into the box before shooting past Carson.
John Carew sent a header narrowly wide for Villa and Luke Moore had a goal disallowed for what looked like a push, although as the visitors chased the game both Johnson and substitute Rolando Bianchi had chances to kill it off late on.
Villa boss Martin O’Neill was not impressed by his side’s performance on the back of their superb win over Chelsea in the last round of games before the international break.
“The truth of the matter is we didn’t do enough. We should be able to create more with the players we have,” he said.
“The goal against us, I thought would be the signal for us to go for the game, which we tried to do. But we didn’t create enough.
“The international break is no excuse, it’s the same for every side. After Chelsea game I wish we had a game the following week, but the big sides can cope with it. We should do better.”
Did you know? Villa have lost eight of their last 10 Premier League meetings with City.
Did you know? Elano has provided the assist for four of City’s five Premier League goals this season.
Schmeichel, Onuoha, Richards, Corluka, Garrido, Vassell (Jihai 64), Johnson, Hamann, Petrov, Mpenza (Bianchi 85), Elano (Ball 83).
Carson, Mellberg, Laursen, Knight, Bouma (Gardner 82), Agbonlahor, Reo-Coker (Petrov 82), Barry, Young, Carew (Maloney 66), Moore.
Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).
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