Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City: Cash strike gives Villa fourth successive league win | OneFootball

Aston Villa beat Manchester City 1-0 at Villa Park, claiming their fourth successive Premier League win.

The only goal of the game came in the form of a brilliant strike into the bottom corner from Matty Cash on his weaker left foot 19 minutes into the first half.

The result has left Manchester City six points away from title rivals Arsenal, while Villa are now up to seventh after a slow start to the season.

As it happened

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery made two changes from the side which beat Tottenham 2-1 in their last Premier League outing, with Evann Guessand making way for Emiliano Buendía, while Ollie Watkins replaced Donyell Malen.

Phil Foden, Oscar Bobb and Tijjani Reijnders returned to the starting lineup for Manchester City, with Erling Haaland starting his 150th match for the club across all competitions.

Manchester City dominated the early stages of the game, getting the ball high up the pitch, but lacked any quality in the final third.

An Aston Villa corner led to the superb strike from Cash into the bottom right corner, leaving Gianluigi Donnarumma with no chance.

Just moments later, Haaland wasted a one-on-one chance he would have been expected to bury, and City managed just two shots in total in the first half; their fewest in the opening half of a Premier League game since December last year against Liverpool.

The home side continued to push to double their lead, with a huge chance falling to John McGinn, but it was deflected wide by John Stones.

Villa failed to capitalise on any further chances, but went into the break with a deserved lead.

It was a more positive start to the second half for Manchester City, but they continued to lack quality in the final third.

Savinho came close to equalising for Pep Guardiola’s side when he latched onto his own rebounded shot with an immediate strike but it was hooked off the line by Pau Torres.

Another big chance came for Aston Villa when Morgan Rogers sent a cross into the box looking for Watkins but Ruben Dias beat him to the ball and headed it clear.

McGinn’s thumping volley was also blocked and Donnarumma made a double save to deny Jadon Sancho.

Haaland thought he had salvaged a point for City in the 90th minute when he diverted the ball into the net and painfully slid into the post, but the offside flag was up against Omar Marmoush.

The game marked the end of the Norwegian’s scoring streak, after he had scored in 12 consecutive games for club and country.

Unai Emery’s side continued to defend well, and claimed their fourth league win in a row, after suffering a shock defeat in Europe to Go Ahead Eagles on Thursday.

Manchester City suffered their first defeat in ten outings and have now lost their previous three visits to Villa Park, with Emery’s side proving to be a difficult opponent for Guardiola.

The line-ups