Manchester City set up a mouthwatering home clash with Premier League title rivals Arsenal with a comfortable win over Aston Villa.
Pep Guardiola’s men took just four minutes to open the scoring as the influential Rodri coverted from a Riyad Mahrez cross to give his side the perfect start to the game. There was little respite for Villa as City poured forwards and they deservedly doubled their advantage six minutes before half-time when the unselfish work of Erling Haaland left Ilkay Gundogan with a simple finish.
Two became three before the interval as former Villa winger Jack Grealish was brought down in the penalty area and Mahrez converting the resulting penalty to give his side a three-goal lead that was the least their dominance deserved.
Surprisingly, that proved to be the end of the scoring for City as Villa striker Ollie Watkins grabbed the only goal of the second-half to give his side a slight hint of what felt like an unlikely comeback. But City remained firm and now go into Wednesday night’s home game with leaders Arsenal knowing a win would see them move to the top of the table.
ManchesterWorld assesses the performances of the City players and hands out our ratings for the win over Villa.
1. Ederson - 6
Did what he had to on the rare occasions he was brought into the action. Photo: Getty Images
2. Kyle Walker - 6
Walker was his usual reliable self but wasn’t really threatened for large parts of the game. Photo: Getty Images
3. Ruben Dias - 6
Didn’t really have much to do during his first-half appearance as Villa offered so little going forwards prior to his half-time substitution. Photo: Getty Images
4. Aymeric Laporte - 6
As with Dias, hard to give a high mark when he was rarely troubled. May feel he could have done more with Watkins goal. Photo: Getty Images