Akin Ayomide
Matty Cash’s first-half goal fired Aston Villa to a 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday, as the club celebrated Unai Emery’s third anniversary as manager in memorable style.
This was Villa’s fourth win in a row in the Premier League and was just what they needed following a shock defeat by Go Ahead Eagles in the Europa League on Thursday. It also earned Villa, who moved up into seventh place, a third straight home win over City.
The defeat for Pep Guardiola’s men ended a nine-match unbeaten run in all competitions and left them six points adrift of leaders Arsenal.
“In the first half the pressing wasn’t good, in the second half it was better,” City manager Guardiola told Sky Sports. “We were not aggressive enough.”
He added: “We will learn from that. It’s a long journey, we will try to be close at the end.”
City almost opened the scoring in the sixth minute when Tijjani Reijnders shot just over the crossbar from the edge of the area.
But Villa began to impose themselves on the game and the decisive moment of the match arrived in the 19th minute.
The home side took a short corner to Emiliano Buendia and he crossed the ball to the edge of the area, where Cash controlled the ball before unleashing a low shot across his body that curled into the bottom corner.
“It was a nice strike,” Poland international Cash told the BBC. “I’ve had a few like them, I’ve scored four this season for club and country. On the edge of the box I like shooting, it’s what I like to do in training, hit them nice and sweet.” City almost equalized three minutes later only for the in-form Erling Haaland, after Bernardo Silva beat the offside trap, to shoot too close to Emiliano Martinez.
That turned out to be the highlight of City’s trip to Birmingham, with Villa dominating the rest of the game only to fail to increase their lead.
John McGinn’s shot from the edge of the box deflected off John Stones and, from the ensuing corner, Ollie Watkins saw a free header blocked.
McGinn also went close early in the second half when he met a corner with a fine strike that was blocked.
City pressed for an equalizer but Ezri Konsa got in the way of Savinho’s fierce shot on the hour and Pau Torres was on the goal line to turn over the Brazilian’s second effort.
Jadon Sancho, on as an early substitute for the injured Buendia, could have doubled the lead in the 69th minute when he had two efforts from a tight angle saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
City threw everything forward in their quest to get back on level terms and thought they had equalized in the 89th minute when Haaland slid in at the far post but the goal was disallowed after Phil Foden was ruled to be offside in the build-up.