Manchester City’s Fernandinho nets late winner against Aston Villa
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Version 0 of 1. David Cameron, if you are still a Villan, that is, after your frankly ludicrous dalliance with the Irons, your boys took a hell of a beating. Actually they didn’t. That was just a topical reference. Aston Villa were quite good for much of this game and a little unlucky not to take something from it, though, in common with the Prime Minister, they suffered a brainfade that people are going to be tittering about for years. Villa might be going to Wembley, but fans singing that happy tune had the smiles wiped off their faces when Sergio Agüero stepped up to put City in front with virtually his first touch of the ball. Related: West Bromwich Albion 0-0 Liverpool | Premier League match report Tim Sherwood’s side are not yet in the sort of league position to give away comedy goals less than three minutes in, yet that is exactly what happened here. Agüero will probably never score an easier goal, or a more unexpected one, after being handed the opportunity on a plate by a miskick by Brad Guzan. The Villa goalkeeper fielded a back pass from Ron Vlaar on one side of his area and was attempting to feed it out to Jores Okore on the other, already a risky strategy as he had no real need to be playing a ball across the face of goal. His miskick simply invited Agüero to find an empty net from near the penalty spot, which he duly did as the Villa defenders involved stared at each other open-mouthed. “Brad will get over it, but it’s hard enough coming here without offering gimmes,” Sherwood said. “It was a poor start, but we performed well afterwards; if we play like that in our remaining games we’ll be OK. We were a bit unlucky right at the end when Christian Benteke was wrongly flagged for offside – that should have been a penalty and a sending off – but wherever we play, we go into games expecting to win now.” A bad start could easily have got worse for the visitors had Jesús Navas been able to demonstrate speed of thought as well as foot when he was played in behind the Villa cover minutes later. The Spaniard was bearing down on goal before Villa were fully awake to the danger, but as happens quite often he was unable to be decisive about whether to pass or shoot, and Kieran Richardson came back to block him while he was still making up his mind. Guzan, jeered every time he had to deal with the ball on the floor, was also showing signs of nervousness in his decision-making, coming out to claim an Aleksandar Kolarov free-kick and missing it by a mile to let Fernando get in a header. Villa somehow managed to reach the interval without further mishap, even creating a couple of chances of their own around the half-hour mark. Joe Hart saved with his legs when Benteke shot from what looked like an offside position, and when Richardson sent over a cross from the left, Tom Cleverley reached it first, but could not keep his attempt low enough. Jack Grealish showed up well as Villa came back into the game, at one point putting in a change of direction so swift that it left Martin Demichelis on his backside, but mostly demanding the ball in the centre of the pitch then transferring it neatly and efficiently to players in space on the flanks. By the time the break arrived, Villa had recovered from their inauspicious opening to the extent of looking the side most likely to score next. They were not exactly peppering Hart’s goal, but they were doing more than the home side, who were inviting the sort of ennui with which the Etihad has become familiar this season by stroking the ball around midfield without any urgency or threat of penetration. It was dull, unimaginative stuff, and Sherwood probably spent the interval telling his players that City were there for the taking. That impression would have been reinforced when Yaya Touré failed to come out for the second half, though, in truth, his contribution before a hamstring injury had been minimal. With the game in the balance, Fabian Delph stroked a volley narrowly wide at one end, while Leandro Bacuna got away with tugging over Agüero in the penalty area at the other. Frank Lampard made way for James Milner after an hour, just in time for him to play a part in City’s second goal. Presented with a free-kick when Carlos Sanchez fouled Fernandinho, 20 yards out, Milner dummied to shoot to one side of the goal then left Kolarov to find the other with a left-foot shot around the edge of the wall. Whether Guzan was fooled by the routine is debatable, but he left fractionally too much space to his right and was late to get down to a low and accurate short. Related: Southampton 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur | Premier League match report That ought to have made the game safe, but the contest was thrown wide open again two minutes later, when Cleverley beat Hart with a thumping drive from the edge of the area as City scrambled to clear a free-kick. Hart had come out to claim the ball and was left in no-man’s land when Fernandinho headed it out instead, straight to Cleverley, who returned it emphatically. City withdrew Agüero for Wilfried Bony and promptly saw Villa draw level. An mix-up at a corner, five minutes from the end, resulted in Hart colliding with several of his own defenders as he attempted to punch clear, succeeding only in finding Carlos Sanchez, who came up with a volley right on target. A draw would have been fair after what had become an enjoyable and evenly contested game, but after Benteke was, possibly wrongly, pulled up for offside before Hart brought him down, City were stirred sufficiently to go upfield and claim a late winner. Villa left Fernandinho unmarked at a corner, and though his first touch was inconclusive, the substitute turned his second into an acrobatic shot that left Guzan with no chance. “We didn’t play well, but we showed our spirit,” Manuel Pellegrini said. “It is not easy to hit back when you only have a couple of minutes after an equaliser, but we did it.” |