Aston Villa brought Manchester City’s perfect start to the league season to an end this afternoon, with a superb performance that saw them run out 2-1 winners at Villa Park.
Villa opened the scoring when John McGinn and Nicolas Jackson combined to capitalise on a defensive error from Marc Guéhi after five minutes. Erling Haaland levelled early in the second half when he rose highest to head home from close range.
However, Jackson popped up again on the hour mark when his shot squeezed under Gianluigi Donnarumma, eventually earning Villa all three points.
As it happened
Aston Villa made four changes from their Champions League win over Viking on Wednesday, with the most notable being the introduction of Johan Manzambi, who has been in fine form lately. Meanwhile, Haaland’s return to the starting side for Manchester City was their headline change after recent injury doubts and a rest against AEK Athens on Tuesday night.
The first flashpoint of the afternoon saw the hosts awarded a corner after Donnarumma took too long over a goal kick. However, Villa couldn’t make the set-piece count. Their opener came just moments later, though, when Jackson cut inside on his right foot before firing into the roof of the net to give the Villans an early lead.
City’s first real chance of the day came in the 12th minute, when Iliman Ndiaye danced round two defenders before forcing a good save from Zion Suzuki. Jackson drove towards the City defence five minutes later in search of doubling his side’s lead, but he dragged his shot wide.
Suzuki was called into action again shortly after, this time getting down quickly to deny Rayan Cherki’s sweeping effort. A clever ball in behind from McGinn forced Josko Gvardiol to concede a corner on the half-hour mark, but the delivery was punched away by Donnarumma.
Ndiaye came close to an equaliser again minutes later, this time striking the post with his curling effort. The end-to-end action continued when Manzambi saw penalty appeals confidently waved away by Peter Bankes after clashing with Elliot Anderson in the box.
Guéhi was shown the first yellow card of the afternoon shortly after for a clumsy foul on Jackson, who looked to burst through on goal. Manzambi took on the free-kick but fired well over the crossbar.
Cherki was next in the referee’s notebook, following a tactical foul on Manzambi. Alysson drove into the City box looking to put his side two to the good, but he was thwarted by some excellent defending from Rúben Dias, meaning it remained 1-0 going into half-time.
Cherki and Guéhi were both withdrawn at the break, replaced by Phil Foden and Rico Lewis.
It took just seven second-half minutes for City to draw level, when Ndiaye’s pack-post delivery found Haaland, who inevitably guided his header into the bottom corner.
Manzambi and Matty Cash were both shown yellow cards by Bankes following the goal, the first for delaying the restart and the latter for a foul in the middle of the park.
Gvardiol almost gave City the lead seconds later, flying up the left flank and forcing a great save from Suzuki.
Villa’s first change saw Ibrahim Mbaye replace Alysson, whose impact was felt immediately when he set up Jackson to put them ahead on the hour mark by squeezing his shot underneath Donnarumma.
Enzo Ferández delivered a dangerous corner five minutes later, picking out Gvardiol at the far post, but the Croatian’s headed well wide. A double change followed for the hosts, with Manzambi and McGinn replaced by Emiliano Buendia and Ross Barkley. Suzuki was on hand again in the 68th minute to deny Gvardiol from close range, before Ryan McAidoo replaced Ndiaye on the right flank.
Anderson was the fifth player in the book today, after losing possession and lunging into a reactionary tackle that he never looked likely to win. Villa’s final changes came with 10 minutes to play, as Jackson and Joao Gomes made way for Brian Madjo and Leon Goretzka. Madjo was booked for time-wasting shortly after.
Haaland almost popped up with another equaliser in the final moments of the match, but he saw his header cleared off the line by Ian Maatsen. That proved to be the final chance for City, as their perfect start came to an end.