Manchester City 2 Aston Villa 1 – Late drama and fan protests as City climb into third place

Manchester City defeated top-five rivals Aston Villa on Tuesday night to take a huge step towards Champions League qualification.

Pep Guardiola’s side opened the scoring after only seven minutes, after Emi Martinez failed to hold a Bernardo Silva shot and let it squirm past him. But it was Marcus Rashford — back in Manchester — who was the chief protagonist for much of the first half.

After striking the post after just 18 seconds of the match, Rashford equalised from the penalty spot on 18 minutes after the VAR team had asked referee Craig Pawson to take a closer look at a clash between Ruben Dias and Jacob Ramsey. The goal extended the Manchester United loanee’s excellent record against City.

Both sides pressed for a winner in the second half, but the game looked like it was heading for a draw that would have arguably suited both sides, until a late, late Matheus Nunes goal sealed three vital points for Manchester City, a result that takes them up to third place.

Sam Lee and Greg O’Keeffe break down the key talking points from the game.

A significant result in the top-five race

A couple of years ago, Pep Guardiola directly referenced the online reaction to his starting line-up against RB Leipzig in a Champions League last-16 game because his XI was perceived to lack imagination. (Funnily enough, they won 7-0). Earlier that season, he also made a comment about a journalist’s tweet about his goalkeeper choice while leaving Borussia Dortmund’s stadium — so presumably, he spends at least a bit of time before a match scrolling through X.

If that is still the case, he will know that his current selections are receiving a lot of backlash online; his algorithm might even be geared towards that kind of content at this point.

It is always hard to quantify just how much of a fanbase feels a certain way about a certain issue, but his midfielder-heavy line-ups have been confusing and even annoying for fans for about a month now. It goes back to the FA Cup clash at Bournemouth, where Guardiola put most of his most-maligned players in the same team at the expense of wingers.

The approach has certainly helped City get results: they beat Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Everton, drew with Manchester United and have now beaten Villa. But that had not done much to quieten the dissenting voices — online and in the stadium — before the game and even in the moments before Nunes’ winner.

It feels like the frustration has remained over these past few weeks — as if the line-ups have had no bearing on results — and is still been stored up to be unleashed after a defeat. Guardiola is clearly trying to control games as best he can, a safety-first approach deployed after all the setbacks this season, and the best way to do that is with as many midfielders as possible. However, the individuals cannot do it quite as well as they did in years gone by.

But as a unit, they are doing a solid job — and even if it is quite uninspiring to watch, it is incredibly effective.

(Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Sam Lee

Did Morgan Rogers deserve a rest?

For a manager never afraid to rotate, Unai Emery has had an understandable aversion to leaving Morgan Rogers out of his starting line-up this season. You can see why: the prodigious 22-year-old has been one of Villa’s stars, with 14 goals and 13 assists in all competitions.

Rogers has started all but one of Villa’s Premier League games to date, missing only January’s win over Leicester through suspension.

So despite all his strength in depth, the Villa manager chose not to keep Rogers fresh for the Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Crystal Palace, and there were signs this 49th game in all competitions might have been one too far. Rogers did not, by any means, have a bad game. But he lacked his usual thrust and creativity, only touching the ball in City’s box twice.

(Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)

Still, Emery might have believed that a result at the Etihad may have been as important as what happens in London on Saturday.

Even a below-par Rogers is an asset, and with him in the side — even if he did seem leggy — Villa competed well for 94 minutes of this tight contest. It was noticeable, perhaps, that City’s winner came only once Rogers had been substituted with four minutes of the game remaining.

Greg O’Keeffe

The spirit of protest at City continues  

City were branded ‘tone-deaf’ by one supporter ahead of kick-off when they posted a picture of a father and son crossing the bridge to the Etihad Stadium under the caption ‘making memories’, on a night when supporters protested against ticket pricing and policy outside the stadium.

The main thrust of the argument is that it is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for families to go to matches together: prices for this game were £71 for adults and £43 for children, while traditional season tickets are not currently available to new customers.

In fact, the pre-match banner showed an eerily similar picture to the one that City tweeted: a dad and lad, next to another banner which read ‘Please don’t take our City away’. This is a fractious time for supporter-club relationships, and those ticket prices came in for heavy criticism ahead of the match. They no doubt had a bearing on the number of empty seats inside the stadium.

City fans protest ahead of the Aston Villa game (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Sam Lee

Another mistake from Martinez

There’s a fine line between a good goalkeeper who makes the occasional error and an error-prone one. Emi Martinez might still be on the right side of it, but he is developing a habit of producing mistakes at high-profile moments.

This fixture has not been kind to Villa lately, having lost their last 14 games at the Etihad. So the last thing they needed was Martinez to deliver another costly blip so early into the contest, especially when they had started brightly with that early Rashford chance.

The 32-year-old somehow conspired to let Bernardo’s shot go in after initially blocking the ball, only for it to ricochet off his legs. There was an element of misfortune but it was also a shot that top keepers would be expected to keep out. Like with Paris Saint-Germain’s goal at Villa Park a week ago, the Argentine got his hands to the ball but it still ended up in the back of the net.

It had an unsettling effect on him, and his distribution was poor for the rest of the first half, most notably when one low clearance came straight back at him as City intercepted and Omar Marmoush was sent through on goal. Martinez was quick enough off his line to block, but he nearly cost his side again just before the break with a clearance under only mild pressure that went straight to Kevin De Bruyne, inviting the midfielder to fire in a dangerous cross.

It wasn’t all bad. Martinez started one impressive back-to-front move with a brave pass which really had to be accurate (and was) to Youri Tielemans, dissecting the City midfield and allowing the Villa midfielder to carry the ball, feed Lucas Digne and win a corner kick.

But there was that nagging feeling that had he kept hold of a shot that he was well positioned to save, Villa might have taken more from this game.

(Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Greg O’Keeffe 

What next for City?

Sunday, April 27: Nottingham Forest (Wembley), FA Cup semi-final, 16.30 BST, 11.30 ET

What next for Villa?

Saturday, April 26: Crystal Palace (Wembley), FA Cup semi-final, 17.15 BST, 12.15 ET

(Top photo: Getty Images)

This post was originally published on this site