There can’t have been many (if any) Aston Villa fans looking forward to today’s battle at The Etihad Stadium with Manchester City and Pep Guardiola looking to lift the Premier League title on home soil.
Although our performance against Burnley was much improved in some respects, our more recent form under head coach Steven Gerrard wouldn’t have had anyone confident going into this one and with us losing Emi Martinez to a training knock, hopes were even more muted.
It was a semi decent start though, although Olsen was looking very wobbly and although the players were battling away, it felt like it was only going to be a matter of time as our few forays into their box just weren’t coming off for us.
With just under ten left in the half, we broke and the unthinkable happened. Digne into Cash and Matty gets on the score sheet with a bullet header. And it really should’ve been at least 2-0 but Ollie was fouled (funny no VAR) on the first one, and for the second chance he just took too long to take the shot.
It was the expected continued onslaught in the second half, but City were still struggling to test Olsen between the sticks and Ollie Watkins had the chance of the game to make it 2-0 but again he dallied on it for too long.
And then again, almost from nothing Philippe Coutinho had a moment of magic, caught them napping at the back and 2-0 it was. I can’t be alone in wondering if I’m still in bed and dreaming at this point?
With less than 15 left on the clock, the game really got interesting as a round of poor defending saw Gundogan grab one back and sadly it was then soon 2-2 and Olsen was continuing to do himself no favours with the efforts conceded.
Then the inevitable happened – more ridiculous defending, and a tap in for 3-2.
It’s the hope that kills you isn’t it but the problems ahead of next season are abundantly obvious to all.
Etihad Stadium
Premier League
22/05/2022 5:00 pm
Attendance: 53395
Referee: Michael Oliver
| Manchester City | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gundogan (76, 81), Rodri (78) | Cash (37), Coutinho (69) | ||||||
| Ederson | Olsen | ||||||
| Stones | Cash | ||||||
| Fernandinho | 45 | Chambers | |||||
| Laporte | Mings | ||||||
| Cancelo | Digne | ||||||
| De Bruyne | McGinn | ||||||
| Rodri | Douglas Luiz | ||||||
| Bernardo Silva | 68 | J Ramsey | 83 | ||||
| Mahrez | 56 | Buendia | 88 | ||||
| Gabriel Jesus | Coutinho | 72 | |||||
| Foden | Watkins | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Walker | Sanson | ||||||
| Ake | Traore | ||||||
| Sterling | 56 | Young | 88 | ||||
| Gundogan | 68 | Nakamba | 72 | ||||
| Grealish | Ings | 83 | |||||
| Zinchenko | 45 | Carney Chukwuemeka | |||||
| Carson | Sinisalo | ||||||
| Palmer | Chrisene | ||||||
| McAtee | Iroegbunam | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 24 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 5 | On Target | 2 |
| 13 | Corners | 1 |
| 5 | Fouls | 11 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 71 | % | 29 |