Cash's clean hit closes the walls in on City's room for error

Pep Guardiola’s team lacked creativity in the final third at a ground where they have now lost three in a row.

HANDS UP: Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reacts during the Premier League match at Villa Park, Birmingham. Pic: Mike Egerton/PA Wire

Aston Villa 1 Manchester City 1

Matty Cash delivered a stunning finish with his weaker left foot to continue Aston Villa’s march up the Premier League table – and further limit Manchester City’s room for error if they are to wrest back the title.

Unai Emery’s team may have started the season sluggishly, with three points from their opening five games bringing tetchiness and concern to the Second City, but this fourth league win on the trot has lifted them to within two points of a Champions League place. They fully deserved this latest triumph, too, thanks to a gameplan that was executed to near perfection.

Pep Guardiola’s team, on the other hand, lacked creativity in the final third at a ground where they have now lost three in a row. A third league defeat of the season, though a first since August, is not a decisive blow so early in the campaign but with an impenetrable Arsenal continuing their march, Guardiola’s team must not perform so tepidly again. 

They now sit six points off the summit occupied by the Gunners, whose own lack of fluency in open play is being cancelled out by defensive brilliance and set-piece dominance. That said, Guardiola did his best to spin the positives at full-time. 

“We are a really good team who played a really good game,” he said. “But in the end we could not score.” 

Erling Haaland briefly thought he had equalised in the 89th minute when sliding in from close range only for the offside flag to go up against Omar Marmoush, who centred for Haaland as he collided uncomfortably with the post. The big Norwegian was quiet throughout, underlining City’s overeliance on him to pull them out of trouble. At 65 minutes it was notable that he had more touches in his own box (3) than Villa’s penalty area (2) – though that statistic was reversed to 4-3 by the end in a performance where he was on the ball only 17 times in total.

“We made a lot of chances,” Guardiola added. “We performed really well, started really well, and we pushed them.” 

Yet Emery’s men deserve plenty of praise for how they negated Haaland’s impact while maximising their strengths and if it was not for a couple of good saves from Gianluigi Donnarumma their winning deficit could have been greater.

The Italian stopper denied Ollie Watkins, John McGinn and twice got in the way of Jadon Sancho, who came off the bench for the injured Emi Buendia in the first half and looked disgusted when he was removed by Emery with little more than 15 minutes to go.

Donnarumma, however, was powerless to stop Cash’s decisive effort after 18 minutes.

It emanated from a short corner taken by Lucas Digne to Buendia, who played firmly across the edge of the box. Cash was left entirely unmarked at the back of the area and, by the time he ran towards the D to pick up Buendia’s pass, which appeared intended for Morgan Rogers, City were already too slow to react.

The Polish Cafu, as he was introduced to Villa fans pre-match, controlled the ball with his right boot, shifting it on to his left, which let loose a killer swerving effort that nestled into the bottom right corner.

"He has a very good shot,” Emery said. “Of course, second actions are really important and he did a very good goal. We have players who are progressively getting better, being confident and playing with qualities. This is the combination we have to have."

Cash, for his part, was voluntarily honest that the set-piece routine was not meant for him, though he was rather glad with how it panned out. 

"It was a nice strike,” he said. “It's something we worked on yesterday in training, though not exactly for me to hit it. It was a special corner but it wasn't meant for me. On the edge of the box I like shooting, it's what I like to do in training, hit them nice and sweet.”

City, despite Guardiola’s assessment, never enjoyed a sustained period of domination and looked culpable when being counterattacked against, although they were justifiably annoyed not to have earned a penalty nearing the interval when Josko Gvardiol was shoved by Rogers.

Referee Michael Oliver ignored the claims and there was no VAR check, even though replays showed a clear push.

On the balance of 90 minutes, however, no one could argue against Villa being the better side. Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara worked tirelessly in midfield. Rogers, who copped plenty of unfair criticism when he was struggling for form early in the season, is nearing his best form again, and Ollie Watkins continues to put in huge work.

"It is important to keep being consistent in this way,” Emery added, describing Villa Park as “our fortress.” One City have proven incapable of breaching.

​​Aston Villa: Martinez 6; Cash 8, Konsa 7, Torres 7, Digne 7 (Maatsen 86); Kamara 7, Onana 7; McGinn 7 (Barkley 74), Rogers 7, Buendia 6 (Sancho 29, 5, Guessand 74); Watkins 6 (Malen 86). Subs Bizot, Bogarde, Mings, Lindelof.

Manchester City: Donnarumma 7; Nunes 5, Stones 5 (O’Reilly 61, 5), Dias 5, Gvardiol 5; Reijnders 6 (Cherki 76), Silva 6 (Gonzalez 61, 5); Bobb 5 (Doku 61, 6), P Foden 5, Savinho 5 (Marmoush 84); Haaland 5. Subs Trafford, Ake, Kovacic, Lewis.

Ref: Michael Oliver 5. 

Att: 41,988.