Five Things Learned: Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City (Premier League) | OneFootball

Manchester City lost their first game in 10 times of asking in a rather toothless display against a defensively sound Aston Villa side at Villa Park on Sunday.

City began the match in comfortable fashion, dictating possession but struggling to create any clear chances. Aston Villa’s first shot on target would go on to be the decider, a speculative shot at goal from the edge of the box from Matty Cash saw City lose their record of being one of the two teams yet to concede from a corner this season.

Guardiola’s men were never short of opportunities with a total of 18 shots but only four found the target, the vast majority of the teams shots coming from desperate scrambles to break down Villa’s extremely effective low block.

The hosts set up to hit City on the counter, a tactic that may have made no difference offensively but on the flip side made Emiliano Martinez’s job extremely easy today.

In the other net, Gianluigi Donnarumma looked extremely comfortable once again. The Italian made a brilliant double save to deny Jadon Sancho and got out well to keep Ollie Watkins at bay. He may not have had much to do today but the star goalkeeper showed once more that he has what it takes whenever he is called upon.

The loss sees City end the weekend in fifth place, six points off league leaders Arsenal. Nothing to panic at just yet but a return to winning ways will be needed against second placed Bournemouth to keep the title chase alive at this stage of the season.

Here are the five things we learned from Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat at Villa Park.

1. Ruben Dias is returning to his brilliant best

In spite of the defeat, Manchester City’s defence once again was a highlight with the Portugal international being at the heart of everything positive on the defensive end. Dias started the season in shaky form with many fans calling for him to be dropped but has reacted incredibly well to the criticism, improving game after game.

With Gvardiol and Stones both spending the majority of their games stepping into advanced areas, Dias often found himself operating as a one man defensive line mopping up counter attacks and making three blocks and seven clearances.

The 28-year-old also won more duels (seven) than anyone else on the pitch. Had he taken one more step to his right, he would have been perfectly placed to block the deciding goal as well. A defensive masterclass even if the scoreline suggests otherwise.

2. It’s time to give Cherki a starting spot

A glaring lack of creativity is perhaps the whole reason Guardiola’s team failed to convert on Sunday. Savinho spent all game running at Matty Cash and Lucas Digne but struggled to do much more than attempt hopeful crosses vaguely towards Haaland.

Oscar Bobb was unfortunately tame at best too, struggling to make any kind of impact out on the right flank, perhaps a symptom of a player still finding rhythm.

Since returning from injury, Rayan Cherki has only managed to make appearances off the bench but has been absolutely electric when doing so, particularly against Everton, wherein he immediately began creating chances and was perhaps unlucky to come away without an assist.

It’s this level of sheer creativity that City were sorely lacking in the wide areas today, with exception of Jeremy Doku the wingers looked largely afraid to take their man on and unable to find Erling Haaland in an effective manner.

It might be time to give Cherki back his starting spot on the wing, at least until the likes of Bobb and Savinho regain their confidence.

3. No need to sign a right-back

Upon his appointment as Manchester City’s director of football, Hugo Viana made a great start to life in Manchester with a summer packed with some extremely intelligent signings, despite this many fans were left wondering why the window closed without the introduction of a new right-back.

With every passing week, Matheus Nunes provides more and more evidence to suggest that he may be the man to fill the spot permanently.

The former Wolves man made two tackles against Villa and twice as many interceptions as anyone else on the pitch. He also used his midfield experience to full effect, completing the highest number passes out of anyone – with 78 of his 84 attempted – a brilliant 92% completion rate.

It may not have been his or anyone’s best game today but Nunes didn’t really put a foot wrong all match and and staked his claim for being a more than adequate starting option going forward.

4. No Haaland, no party

In recent weeks many questions have been asked of the Manchester City attack with many fans and pundits suggesting that the team over rely on the output of Haaland. The 1-0 defeat may have proved that this issue is more than just negative speculation.

Haaland did have his chances but it was only his first that could be considered a particularly clear chance. With Aston Villa doing so well to keep the Norwegian at bay, you might hope that City’s depth of attacking talent would prevail – but this was unfortunately not the case.

Speculative shots and hopeful crosses looked to be the only gameplan going forward against the midland side’s low block. It’s time for someone else to step up and show that they can take the attacking burden in such situations in order to avoid repeating the woes of last season.

With so much focus on the striker, it should encourage opportunities from elsewhere on the field – with the defence concentrated on one man – but in these situations it often seems like the rest of the team are afraid to take chances for themselves – we know that there’s an abundance of skill in the attack so it’s time we saw it used to full effect.

5. Rodri and Nico as important as ever

It would be unreasonable to suggest that Matty Cash’s goal would have been prevented by the presence of either Gonzalez or Rodri, no one was at fault for the brilliant strike. It is more reasonable to suggest that either one of the midfielders would have almost definitely helped to get the Blues back in the game.

After the goal, Villa spent large portions of the game in full control of the ball with the visitors really struggling to have any meaningful possession of the ball. This isn’t news to anyone of course; last season’s struggles were largely attributed to the absence of Rodri, but fans might have hoped that the team could find new ways to adapt to life without the midfielder.

Nico made his appearance in the 61st minute and from there he put on the kind of assured and controlling performance that we have become used to by now. Tijjani Reijnders has made a good start to life in Manchester but looked uncomfortable in the holding role today, just lacking the physicality and experience in the position to make any real impact.

The “Rodri” role is so fundamental to the way Guardiola sets his team up that it seemed a strange decision to leave the seemingly fit Nico off the field for so long.