Aston Villa beat Manchester City to celebrate Unai Emery landmark in style
Leon Bailey’s goal downed Manchester City (David Davies/PA)
Leon Bailey fired Aston Villa to a 1-0 win over Manchester City which equalled a club record with a 14th consecutive home victory and lifted them above the stuttering champions into third place in the Premier League.
Bailey’s 74th-minute strike came thanks to a deflection off Ruben Dias but few inside Villa Park cared amid jubilant celebrations.
Unai Emery’s first career win over Pep Guardiola in 14 attempts came in his 50th match in charge of Villa, a side he has transformed from relegation battlers to top-four contenders in the space of a year.
Aston Villa moved up to third with their victory (David Davies/PA)
For City it was yet another sign of their over-reliance on the suspended Rodri. They are unbeaten in their last 43 matches in which the Spain midfielder has played, but their four defeats this season have all come when he has been serving a ban.
With Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku also missing through suspension and injury respectively, Guardiola was forced into a midfield that included two defenders, John Stones and Rico Lewis, with another, Manuel Akanji, pushing forward.
Villa knew they could get at such an imbalanced City side and did so from the start.
City’s lack of fluidity only encouraged a Villa side already high on confidence in front of their own fans and they were all over the champions in the first half, beating the high line with regularity as Ederson was forced into early saves to deny Bailey and Pau Torres.
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At the other end, Erling Haaland
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