Dzeko sets up Blue Sunday

Manchester City 4 Aston Villa 0

For a neutral supposing the title race had finished with Liverpool’s draw at Crystal Palace 48 hours earlier, witnessing the first 63 minutes at the Etihad Stadium was not unlike hearing what you considered to be a happy couple at each other’s throats.

The comfortable stroll to the title that was so widely predicted looked like it may not happen until Dzeko scored two close-range efforts in the space of eight minutes.

Stevan Jovetic fired in a third with a minute left before Yaya Toure gave the night some gloss with an incredible solo strike for his 20th league goal of the season.

With their overwhelming goal difference, they only have to draw with West Ham on Sunday to seal a second title in three years.

However, defender Pablo Zabaleta insisted City would be taking nothing for granted.

“I think it’s a massive step forward but we know that there’s still one game to play and we had the experience two years ago on the last day of the season against QPR, and sometimes you don’t know.

“We know West Ham are safe but they have very good players, they play really well on the counter-attack, they can score on set-pieces, so it’s going to be very, very tough, like tonight, so we can’t relax.

“We have a great chance so hopefully on Sunday we can celebrate the title.”

On this evidence they will make hard work of it and a fan-base so used to failure does not help with its paralysing nerves.

However, Pellegrini saw enough in the second half to convince him the title was now theirs to lose. “I expect to win the title,” he said. “There are different ways to win titles. I choose this one: attractive football.”

His big striker Dzeko may trundle around like he feels he might have forgotten something but with Sergio Aguero absent through injury again and Alvaro Negredo off form, the Bosnian’s goals have been crucial to taking City to within touching distance of the championship.

He opened the scoring in the 2-0 win at Crystal Palace and scored twice in the 3-2 win at Everton before making the decisive contribution against a limited but stubborn Villa.

It took just 10 minutes for the fans to start pleading with City’s players to lump the ball into the area and shoot from 35 yards.

Their first opportunity saw Toure thread a pass through for Aleksandar Kolarov, whose firm effort was pushed away at the near post by Brad Guzan.

At least City’s players were prepared to bide their time and a smart passing move saw Zabaleta pick out Toure, whose low effort was saved by Guzan’s feet.

With City camped in Villa territory and the visitors content to string as many as eight players across the 18-yard line, Samir Nasri bent a shot past the top corner as the pressure continued.

David Silva had an effort blocked by Ciaran Clark and Nasri prodded just wide just before the break.

After the interval the anxiety picked up a notch and Vincent Kompany had an overhead kick held by Guzan.

A Kolarov free-kick was thumped away by Guzan and after Jovetic was thrown on, Dzeko turned wide from a Zabaleta cross.

But just after the hour the breakthrough finally came. Silva ran away from goal and span to clip a pass into Zabaleta, whose ball from the right was stabbed in from a couple of yards.

Dzeko added a second when Silva again put Zabaleta in behind and when the Argentina full-back cut it back for Nasri, the Frenchman’s shot was blocked, before Dzeko turned in.

The visitors came close to grabbing one back with eight minutes remaining when Andreas Weimann’s header from Callum Robinson’s cross dropped down close to the line.

But there was never any prospect of a comeback and after Toure held on to possession for some time in the box, he squared for Jovetic to fire home.

In the third minute of added time, the evening had its crowning moment when Toure collected the ball 10 yards inside his own half and surged all the way before guiding a shot past Guzan.

The nerves were forgotten.

MANCHESTER CITY (4-4-1-1): Hart 7; Zabaleta 8, Kompany 7, Demichelis 7, Kolarov 7; Milner 7 (Jovetic 60, 7), Garcia 7, Toure 7, Nasri 6; Silva 7 (Fernandinho 76, 6); Dzeko 7 (Negredo 86, 6).

ASTON VILLA (5-3-2): Guzan 8; Lowton 7, Vlaar 7, Baker 6, Clark 5 (Robinson 79, 6), Bertrand 5 (Grealish 87, 6); El Ahmadi 5, Westwood 5, Delph 6; Weimann 6, Bowery 6 (Bacuna 59, 6).

Referee: Michael Oliver.