Manchester City suffered their sixth defeat of the Premier League season after going down 2-1 to Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon.
Premier League
Result: Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester City
Date: 21 December 2024
Venue: Villa Park
City coach Pep Guardiola dropped goalkeeper Ederson, Kevin de Bruyne and Kyle Walker after the Manchester derby defeat, as Stefan Ortega, Jack Grealish and Rico Lewis were recalled to the starting line-up.
The home side got off to a promising start on home soil, as Jhon Duran and Pau Torres were both denied by Ortega, who pulled off two brilliant saves inside the opening five minutes.
Villa got their reward in the 16th minute when a swift counter-attack ended with Morgan Rogers unselfishly teeing up Duran, who made no mistake from close range.
The visitors eventually got going in the midway period but had to wait until the 35th minute for a big chance as Phil Foden combined with Lewis before seeing his curling strike brilliantly tipped away by Emiliano Martinez.
Villa started the second half in similar fashion to the first, as Duran had the ball in the back of the net after five minutes but the celebrations were cut short due to the offside flag.
It got worse for City in the 64th minute as Rogers embarked on a lung-busting run before exchanging passes with John McGinn and unleashing a low strike into the far corner against his former his team.
Cityzens coach Guardiola responded with a change for the final 20 minutes as Ilkay Gundogan made way for Savinho as the visitors looked to upped the ante in the attack and pull a goal back.
Phil Foden did pull one back for the defending champions in second half stoppage time with his first league goal of the campaign, but Villa had done enough to secure maximum points.
