Aston Villa 1 Manchester City 0
A poacher’s goal from record signing Darren Bent was enough to consign Roberto Mancini’s men to their fifth defeat of the season. The England striker, signed from Sunderland for an initial fee of £18 million midweek, reacted first when Joe Hart parried an Ashley Young effort from the edge of the area to get a tap in and relieve some of the pressure at Villa Park.
Gerard Houllier had put out what seemed on paper a very attacking XI; but the home side showed remarkable discipline with forward-thinking quartet Young, Stewart Downing, Marc Albrighton and Gabriel Agbonlahor all on the pitch. City played some attractive approach play, but lacked penetrations and width at times.
Villa’s backline, made up entirely of centre halves, were outstanding as a unit to shut out the talismanic Carlos Tevez and the Citizens’ new signing Edin Dzeko. The clean sheet was the home side’s first since the goalless draw in the Midlands derby against Birmingham in October.
Aleksandar Kolarov provided quality with dead balls for the visitors, but Brad Friedel was never sternly tested in the Villa goal. The American was only called upon twice to tip over a Vincent Kompany header in the first half and a Jerome Boateng shot from the edge of the box on the hour mark which he parried before it was cleared. City seemed intent on breaking their hosts down through the centre.
The closest the Citizens came to scoring was five minutes from time when Nigel de Jong’s shot from range deflected off Ciaran Clark and came back off the base of the post. Other chances were spurned by Dzeko who failed to hit the target. The defeat leaves Mancini’s side three points behind leaders Manchester United in the race for the Premier League title.
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