Champions Manchester City took on a troubled Aston Villa
side away at Villa Park. Manchester City, who have been in decent form of late didn't
start as well as they would have wanted as Villa looked promising on the break
as they pressed Manchester City the second they won the ball. Villa, with the
home fans behind them looked to repeat the result they pulled off in the
Capital One Cup earlier in the season and continued to keep City relatively
quiet in the opening stages of the game. After 19 minutes of play, the Aston
Villa fans started a minutes applaud for their former Captain Stiliyan Petrov
who wore the number 19 shirt before he was forced to retire after being
diagnosed with leukaemia. A reoccurring hamstring injury forced Jack Rodwell
off after 24 minutes and he was replaced with striker Edin Džeko which aimed to
boost City's attack after they had no real threat at the start. Villa looked
confident and not of a team who were struggling towards the foot of the table
as they passed the ball effectively worrying the Manchester City defensive
midfielders and defenders. Manchester City lacked conviction in the final third
and both teams were level after 35 minutes with no real openings for either
team. City did come close however, when Zabaleta's shot, a result of some nice
passing down the right flank, cannoned off the post. Following this attack,
roles reversed and City finally woke up and piled the pressure but were
continuously denied by Brad Guzan. On
the 45 minute mark, City took the lead as Džeko pounced onto the ball as Ciaran
Clark slipped in his own half and shifted the ball over to Carlos Tevez who
confidently dropped his shoulder to take it round the 'keeper before sliding
the ball into the back of the net.
As the second half commenced, Villa restarted with some early pressure in attempt to draw back level, but were unable to find the reply they so desperately needed. A late penalty claim sent the Villa fans wild as Christian Benteke was thought to have been taken down by Nastasic but referee Mike Dean waved play on. In the dying embers of the game, Aston Villa continued to push forward in hope of an equaliser and with minutes to go they won a corner but any chance was squandered as the corner failed to stay in play. Manchester City held on and were unable to double their lead but did enough to take home all 3 points as they look to close down the gap between League leaders and rivals Manchester United.