Man City 4-1 Aston Villa: Player ratings as Foden hat-trick helps champions to victory
Manchester City kept pace with their Premier League title rivals on Wednesday evening with a 4-1 victory over Aston Villa courtesy of a Phil Foden hat-trick.
Both sides demonstrated their attacking qualities in an entertaining first half at the Etihad, with Foden putting Man City in front at the break after Jhon Duran had cancelled out Rodri's early opener.
Foden secured the result with three excellent goals after the restart, with the champions moving level on points with Liverpool ahead of their clash with Sheffield United on Thursday night.
Pep Guardiola raised a few eyebrows by leaving both Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland on the bench, but it had little impact onCity as they raced into an early lead. Jeremy Doku found space for a cross on the right and picked out Rodri inside the box, with the Spaniard firing high into the net with 11 minutes played.
However, Aston Villa had shown their teeth on the counter-attack amid City's territorial dominance, and Duran took advantage of a rare start to fire Unai Emery's side level. The Colombian played a neat one-two with Morgan Rogers and fired a fantastic low finish past Stefan Oretga from a tight angle.
City continued to threaten in the final third and could have found themselves back in front shortly after. Jack Grealish's volleyed effort bounced wide of the far post against his former side, with Julian Alvarez seeing his close-range strike rebuffed by the outstretched leg of stand-in Robin Olsen.
But the hosts did find a route to goal just moments before the half-time whistle and it came directly from a free-kick.Foden struck a powerful shot into the bottom corner from 20 yards out, but a sizeable gap in the Villa wall was what ultimately proved costly for the visitors.
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