Balotelli hat-trick piles misery on Villa

THE manner in which Mario Balotelli recorded his first hat-trick in English football summed up just how easy Manchester City’s victory over Aston Villa was yesterday.

Two penalties, barely getting above a stroll in his ‘run up’ and a tap-in was all it took to score three goals against an increasingly desperate Villa, whose manager Gerard Houllier’s position already looks more than unstable after three months in charge.

City finished three points above Villa as both sides launched sustained pushes for fourth place last season but the hosts’ victory moved them 18 points clear of the Midlands side.

Just to underline their dominance, City had both James Milner and Gareth Barry on the bench, having dealt hammer blows to Villa’s momentum by signing their best player in each of the last summers.

As another indication that all is not well at Villa Park, the two players that have moved in the opposite direction, Irish duo Richard Dunne and Stephen Ireland, were not even in the 18-man squad against their old club.

Just like the 3-0 humiliation at Anfield that first turned Villa’s fans against the Frenchman, his team’s performance was utterly listless, with players bickering and sulking as they were totally out-played.

He claimed that Ireland was only missing because of a knee problem, but that senior players had been dropped because of their performances and then refused to discuss the Irish midfielder’s future.

Houllier also revealed that John Carew had been left out of his squad after returning home from Norway late due to snow and with an injury but for all that, and for all the on-field evidence to the contrary, he remains sure he’ll turn it around.

He said: “We are in a relegation battle, definitely. We were before and we knew that we would have a difficult run of games over Christmas with games against Tottenham, Manchester City and Chelsea.

“Confidence is something that we need to address. We need to turn the corner. I think we have the spirit, the players are aware we’re going through a difficult run.”

As the problems mount for Villa, the list of positives for City seems to grow. The defeat to Everton, which cost them the chance to move top nine days ago, will still irritate but they have suffered just one defeat in 10 and, even with Carlos Tevez left on the bench, they were imperious yesterday.

Balotelli will attract all of the attention but that unfairly takes away the focus from outstanding displays by David Silva and Yaya Toure.

It was Silva’s slide through that sent Balotelli into the area and the Italian was hauled down by Eric Lichaj before getting up to slide the resulting penalty past Brad Friedel after seven minutes.

Five minutes later the lead was doubled when Lescott met Adam Johnson’s corner with a thumping header.

Just before the half hour, City scored a third in real style. They went from front to back to front again in the space of 33 passes, with Silva cutting in from the right and hitting a shot that was palmed away by Friedel only for Balotelli to touch into an empty net.

Balotelli showed his frustrating side when he simply refused to support a Yaya Toure break, giving up the chance to have a first-half hat-trick.

But he completed the job when Marc Albrighton hacked down Adam Johnson eight minutes after the restart and the Italian produced another cool penalty to make it four and City coasted through the final half an hour.

Balotelli headed straight down the tunnel, ignoring the fans and a chance to get his hands on the match-ball, at the final whistle but his manager Roberto Mancini feels the Italian’s behaviour is just a front.

He joked: “Every player has their own behaviour. I think he is happy. Mario is a good guy. He is not like he is on the pitch. He is a different guy off the pitch but he likes to give this image, this impression, that he doesn’t like to play.”

Manchester City (4-3-3): Hart 7; Richards 6, Kompany 8, Lescott 7, Zabaleta 8; Y Toure 9 (Jo 63), De Jong 7 (Bridge 77, 6), Vieira 7; Johnson 8, Balotelli 9, Silva 9 (Milner 58).

Subs not used: Given, Boateng, Barry, Tevez.

Aston Villa (4-5-1): Friedel 5; Lichaj 5, Collins 6, Cuellar 6, Warnock 5; Albrighton 5 (Delfouneso 56, 7), Bannan 7 (Delph 56, 6), Reo-Coker 5 (Pires 81, 6), Petrov 5, Downing 5; Agbonlahor 5.

Subs not used: Clark, Guzan, Hogg, Herd.

Referee: Michael Oliver.