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An obsessive Spanish manager had taken his adopted club to rare heights. Then came a chastening spell of 11 games, littered with setbacks, sending his team tumbling down the table, bringing their ambitions into question. But this victory was emphatic and impressive, offering relief and respite. A slump may be over.
But not for Pep Guardiola. Because, for Unai Emery and Aston Villa, Manchester City came to town. They were duly and deservedly beaten. Second best in the Second City, they suffered their ninth defeat in 12 matches. Villa had lost six in 11 since they went top of the Champions League. Like City, they had conceded a quickfire double to conjure defeat when they could have won last week. But in a battle of the beleaguered, City lost. Now they always do. It is their strange new normality. For Guardiola, it doesn’t get better. It just gets worse. It wouldn’t be a weekend without someone chanting “sacked in the morning” at him and he heard a familiar song.
It has become the soundtrack to a slide. “We don’t have a defence, the results are not good,” Guardiola admitted. He has a lone win in 12 attempts. City struggle to perform for 90 minutes. “I wasn’t pleased with the second half,” he said. The fragility of City’s spirit became an issue then. “The confidence for us was increasing and the confidence for them was going down,” noted Emery.
He earned just his second win over Guardiola in 16 attempts. It was utterly merited, with City flattered by the final scoreline. Villa began at a blistering pace, took advantage of City’s soft underbelly and used their greater physicality to good effect. Jhon Duran started, starred and scored. Morgan Rogers was terrific. Youri Tielemans was arguably better still. Damningly for City, each was allowed to shine.
Guardiola spent the first half gesturing histrionically, the second with his hands in his pockets, a man resigned to his fate. He witnessed factors in City’s fall. Villa’s first goal, like much else, stemmed from City’s lack of a defensive midfielder; there was no one to stop Tielemans from playing penetrative passes. Meanwhile, Rogers, once owned by City, never picked by them and sold by them, made one and scored one. City have made millions by cashing in on players. Now it has come at a cost. Rogers can run. City cannot.
This feels like the complete breakdown of an all-conquering team. “We concede the goals we don’t concede in the past, we [don’t] score the goals we score in the past,” Guardiola added. There were problems in both boxes, problems at the beginning. City made an astonishingly shambolic start; Josko Gvardiol gifted Duran a golden chance inside 15 seconds, caught dawdling in possession by John McGinn. Stefan Ortega made two terrific saves within 70 seconds, denying the Colombian and doing brilliantly to claw away a Pau Torres header from almost behind the goalline. Perhaps Guardiola had grounds to be glad Ederson was injured as his deputy excelled. But Ortega only postponed the inevitable and, with saves from Rogers and Ollie Watkins, only reduced the damage done.
Defensively, City were a mess. “We have just one central defender fit, that is difficult,” said Guardiola. He had two at the start but John Stones’s comeback lasted just 45 minutes. Luckless, he was withdrawn. “I am not in the right moment to make creative or tactical changes,” said Guardiola as the injured centre-back departed. Stones and Manuel Akanji were parachuted in but afforded no protection. There was space to the front of them, space behind them, space Villa’s quicker, hungrier forwards enjoyed.
When Stones went off, the dropped Kyle Walker was summoned. Kevin De Bruyne, who was also benched in Guardiola’s latest unsuccessful ploy to revive their fortunes, was left unused, the manager seeming to accept defeat. Perhaps that felt a mistake when Phil Foden struck in the 93rd minute, his belated first league goal of the season a reward for his refusal to give up. “Thanks to some players for the pride they showed on the pitch,” said Guardiola. That appeared to imply others showed less commitment. He added: “I never point at players in nine years because it would be easy for me to do that.”
Some, though, had little to savour for their afternoon. Jack Grealish started at Villa Park for the first time since leaving. He was targeted by his teammates for diagonal balls, booed by the home support and booked for a foul on McGinn, a successor as Villa captain. Grealish was charged with creating for Erling Haaland but the striker had no service. “I haven’t been scoring my chances,” said the Norwegian, nobly. He had few at Villa Park. He blamed himself when he could have blamed others.
And the opener was too easy. City were too susceptible to the break, their high defensive line giving runners room to burst into. Tielemans sent Rogers racing clear and the England international passed unselfishly for Duran to slot in. Duran may be Villa’s resident super-sub but his season has brought six starts. He has scored in each. It may be more accurate simply to refer to him as a super striker.
Rogers, a terrific No 10, went on to angle in a shot from McGinn’s pass. A few seconds earlier, Mateo Kovacic had failed to foul him. City couldn’t stop Villa by means fair or foul. Rogers was rampant. “He’s a lovely guy and he exploded,” said Guardiola. Selling Rogers has backfired, though it seemed logical when he was behind City greats in the queue for places. “Do you know what happened?” said Guardiola. “Some players who won the treble and the quadruple, the players that we had that allowed us to create more success in the history of our club. It’s the only reason why.”
And Rogers isn’t the only reason for City’s crisis. It is history, but of a different kind, the worst run of Guardiola’s career, still going on. So it is Emery Christmas for Villa, but an utterly miserable one for City.
