Rodri enjoys his best goalscoring season, City play hardball over banner-gate

Phil Foden scored a brilliant hat-trick as Manchester City kept the pressure on in the Premier League title race with a 4-1 win over Champions League-chasing Aston Villa.

A day after defending his star striker against criticism from Roy Keane, Pep Guardiola left Erling Haaland on the bench alongside Kevin De Bruyne, clearing the stage for Foden to grab the spotlight with an outstanding performance and his second hat-trick of the campaign.

After Jhon Duran cancelled out Rodri's opener, the 23-year-old put City back in front with a free-kick late in the first half before two excellent strikes settled it just after the hour mark, taking Foden to 21 City goals for the season.

Pep Guardiola's side remain third, a point behind leaders Arsenal and level with Liverpool - who host Sheffield United on Thursday - after their first win over a top-five side this term.

Mail Sport's Nathan Salt takes a look at some of the things you may have missed.

Banner-gate was a hot topic again as fans descended en masse to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night.

A banner by the 1894 Group criticising the club over season ticket prices - which read ‘Record profits but record prices, stop exploiting our loyalty’ - was confiscated prior to the weekend’s stalemate against Arsenal.

Many of those involved had assumed that while confiscated ahead of the Arsenal match it would be fine to unfurl here against Villa - not to be.

Some fans had accreditation, which gives them early access to set up, taken off them on Sunday as a result of the banner row and it wasn’t back in place in time for the visit of Villa.

Fans certainly are not happy… but as for when the banner will be back inside the Etihad, that’s a mystery.

What a night for young Tim Iroegbunham.

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