City reality check before Bayern test

PREMIER LEAGUE:

The tremors felt following Manuel Pellegrini’s team’s clinical and comprehensive 4-1 demolition of rivals Manchester United a week ago will not have been exclusive to English shores.

It was a result which made Europe sit up and take note.

Saturday’s defeat by West Brom has left the shadow of Alex Ferguson hanging over David Moyes beyond his worst fears. Yet it also suggested those rushing to crown City as champions-elect last weekend might have been jumping the gun.

That theory, certainly, was compounded by 90 minutes at Villa Park bordering on the bizarre. Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko strikes were cancelled out each time by Karim El Ahmadi and Leandro Bacuna before Andi Weimann’s dramatic winner.

City were left bewildered by their failure to win a match in which they had 67% of the possession and registered 20 attempts to Villa’s eight.

The only statistic that mattered, however, was that they scored one goal less than their opponents.

On the road, it is a worrying trend. They might have looked every bit the real deal at the Etihad last Sunday, but this was a reality check ahead of the ultimate acid test against kings of Europe Bayern on Wednesday night.

City are still to win away in the league — claiming just one point from games against Cardiff, Stoke and Villa. They are at least back on home soil in midweek but will have to do far, far better.

Last season, the German giants demonstrated the growing chasm between them and England’s finest and, on Saturday’s evidence, they will fancy their chances of proving it is a gulf which remains in place.

It was hardly as if City were fielding their second string, with Wednesday in mind. Only Jesus Navas and Sergio Aguero were absent from the starting XI against United and they were replaced with James Milner and Edin Dzeko.

Pellegrini, however, is staying calm.

“I don’t think this result will have an impact [on the Munich game]. We know it’s a different competition,” he said.

“I think the team played a good match at Villa. But we have to revise a lot of things why we didn’t win. Now we will look to the Champions League.

“This match was very different to the ones we played against Cardiff and Hull. I saw the team play how we need to play and the way I want to play.”

For Villa, meanwhile, these were their first home points of what now represents a promising start. They have now claimed nine points from a start which also included Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.

That they achieved it without Gabriel Agbonlahor and, even more significantly, Christian Benteke made it all the more impressive.

Yet Lambert said: “Too much has been made of the Christian [Benteke] thing. “For all the headlines he gets, he would be the first to say you need your team-mates.”

City finally broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time when Toure converted Samir Nasri’s corner, yet Villa levelled six minutes after the restart when El Ahmadi — marginally offside — drilled in from a tight angle.

Soon Dzeko levelled from another Nasri corner, albeit via his back, yet then came the game’s most memorable moment. With 17 minutes left, Villa were handed a free-kick 25 yards out and up stepped Dutchman Bacuna, curling home a stunning set-piece which left Joe Hart rooted to his spot for what his first goal in English football since his summer switch from FC Groningen.

“He does it in training,” Lambert said. “I didn’t really know he could do that when I signed him.”

Then two minutes later Brad Guzan’s punt was flicked on by Libor Kozak. With City’s defence at sea, Weimann scampered through, prodding the ball beyond the onrushing Hart.

“One thing I know about these guys is they will give you everything they’ve got,” Lambert said.

“City have some fantastic players but I wasn’t overly worried when the board showed five minutes of added time because I know what my players have in them.”

ASTON VILLA (5-3-2): Guzan 7; Bacuna 8, Vlaar 7, Baker 7, Clark 7, Luna 7; El Ahmadi 7, Delph 7, Sylla 7; Weimann 7 (Bowery 80), Kozak 7.

MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-2): Hart 5; Zabaleta 5, Kompany 5, Nastasic 5, Kolarov 6; Nasri 6 (Navas 66, 5), Fernandinho 5, Toure 6, Milner 6; Negredo 5, Dzeko 6 (Jovetic 74, 5).

Referee: Michael Jones.

Attendance: 34,063.