Manchester City closed in the gap to just three points behind Arsenal at the top of Premier League with a dominant win 3-1 over Aston Villa at the Etihad on Sunday.
Defensive midfielder Rodri opened the scoring for City, heading in a cross from Riyad Mahrez following a corner just four minutes into the match.
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City continued to apply pressure as Erling Haaland pounced on a mix up between goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and defender Calum Chambers in front of the Villa goal before threading a pass across the box for Ilkay Gundogan who slotted into an empty net. Shortly after, Villa midfielder Jacob Ramsey conceded a penalty when he clipped City’s Jack Grealish in the box, with Mahrez stepping up to make it three for the hosts.
Forward Ollie Watkins brought one back for the away side in the 61st minute, his third goal in as many games, finessing the ball into the bottom right corner but the visitors could not find their way back into the match.
Prior to the match, City fans booed the Premier League introduction song as the teams lined up, just days after the club was charged with over 100 breaches of financial fair play.
The win keeps City in second place just three points behind Arsenal, giving them an opportunity to draw level with the league leaders who they face on Wednesday. Villa are in 11th.
It was not a vintage City performance against Villa but considering the build-up was dominated by serious allegations that could have huge ramifications for the Abu Dhabi-owned club, it was efficient enough to get the job done.
It also set up Wednesday’s clash at Arsenal beautifully.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Gundogan told Sky Sports after the match. “We are looking forward to it and know how tough it will be.”
Villa never really recovered from allowing Rodri to get away from his marker and head past Martinez after four minutes although they were perhaps unlucky to be trailing 3-0 at halftime as Ramsey’s foul on Grealish looked soft.
They improved after the break as City appeared to take their foot off the gas but suffered two successive defeats for the first time since Unai Emery replaced Steven Gerrard as manager to stay 11th in the standings with 28 points.
“We have to be positive when we are winning, and we have to learn how to respond and although the result was bad we tried to show our mentality in the second half,” Emery said.
“It was a bad result, but we have to learn and use it in the next matches.”
Information from Reuters contributed to this report.
