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How pivotal will this prove in the Premier League title race? Pep Guardiola has drily commented that the crown has already been handed to Liverpool and then Arsenal. And we are only in October.
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But suddenly Manchester City are six points behind Arsenal – with a third defeat in their nine league games so far – and given how Mikel Arteta’s side are just grinding out the results that appears to be a gap they cannot allow to get any greater.
They can have no complaint about this loss which ended their nine-match unbeaten run and was fully deserved as Aston Villa produced by far their best performance of the campaign.
Where has this Villa been? From front to back they were superb with Morgan Rogers excelling against his former club and his England team-mate Ollie Watkins leading the line tirelessly as they counterattacked smartly.
It was a win that extended Villa’s victorious league streak to four in a row and lifted them up to seventh, just a point behind City, and right into the mix for a Champions League place with the only goal coming early and from an unlikely source: Matty Cash.
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The full-back, dubbed the Polish Cafu, struck from a cleverly-worked corner routine and despite City’s inevitable dominance Villa did not rest on that and carried a threat of their own.
City’s over-reliance on Erling Haaland was exposed and the striker was afforded just one chance, shooting too close to Emiliano Martinez soon after Villa scored.
In saying that it did look like Haaland had equalised late on, throwing himself to turn in a cross from substitute Omar Marmoush and smashing into the post as he did so. But that was ruled out as Marmoush was marginally offside.
Deep into injury time there was also a fantastic block by Villa substitute Ross Barkley to deny another replacement, Nico González, what appeared to be a certain equalising goal. It summed up Villa’s determination.
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