Don’t ask me how, but that game had five goals. After the early slapstick of Guzan’s early blunder – and you’ll be seeing plenty more of that, whoever and wherever you are – it didn’t really deserve a thing more until things burst into life in the last 25 minutes. Kolarov’s free-kick (what was the wall doing?) seemed to win it for City, before two similarly conceived but well-taken goals from Cleverley and Sanchez appeared to have gained Villa a precious and well-earned point. But no, they threw it away, defending shoddily from a corner and allowing Fernandinho to snatch it at the death. In fact, all five goals came from defensive muck-ups. Engaging finish but certainly low on quality.
All of which leaves City in second, for now at least, and Villa 15th – three places and two points clear of the drop. You sense it was an opportunity lost for them against a generally sluggish City, and wonder what might have been if they had turned up at the outset. Oh Brad.
Anyway, enough from me for today. Thanks for your morsels of contact, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Updated
Full-time: Manchester City 3-2 Aston Villa
What a weird game.
90+4 min: Hart punches well away this time. Surely that is indeed that.
90+4 min: Benteke has been unplayable in the air and another intelligent header starts a Villa attack, from which they win a late free kick and chance to pile into the box...
90+3 min: City have probably got this now, and have possession inside the Villa half.
91+1 min: Villa have conceded three really, really bad goals here, undoing some fine general play further up.
90+1 min: Four added minutes here.
Goal! Manchester City 3-2 Aston Villa (Fernandinho 89)
That is incredible. Incredibly bad. City win a corner, Kolarov puts it in from the left and it’s not a great ball, surely too low. But it goes through everyone and Fernandinho, reacting quickly, controls with his chest and volleys home all alone at the far post. Villa will be absolutely kicking themselves. A defender had to clear that.
Updated
87 min: Tim Sherwood – who, ok, went pretty barmy when that goal went in – has brought Lowton on for Bacuna. Then it all happens as City claim a penalty for handball when Navas drives a ball at Delph....and Villa counter at speed, N’Zogbia playing Benteke in. Offside is given, but replays show he was on!
Goal! Manchester City 2-2 Aston Villa! (Sanchez 85)
Wow! N’Zogbia inswings it and, just as for the first goal, a defender gets to the ball ahead of Hart but can’t clear far. With the goalkeeper prone, Sanchez adjusts himself beautifully to pass the ball – at a really awkward height – into the net from 12 yards! They deserve it. But oh dear, dear, dear City.
Updated
85 min: Bacuna now wins a right-sided corner....
83 min: Wilfried Bony will now come on for Aguero, who has made some inaccurate decisions today despite his early tap-in. Didn’t look at full throttle to me.
82 min: Silva hits the ball against Okore for a left-sided corner. The big guns are up, Kolarov puts it in...but it’s flicked away at the near post and Villa clear.
81 min: Kieran Richardson takes the ball on and shoots from not-from-there range, and its a decent enough shot that Hart dives to his left and smothers.
80 min: Fernandinho drags Grealish down now. Big last 10 minutes coming up for Villa....and perhaps for Manuel Pellegrini.
78 min: Won in the air by Benteke but, for the umpteenth time today, he’s offside. Benteke is winning pretty much everything here but his positioning has not been the best.
78 min: Delph seems to slip under the attention of Navas, but Villa have a threatening free kick. Perhaps he was clipped slightly, to be fair.
77 min: Delph and Richardson combine down the left before Grealish has a ball headed away, but City really can’t clear their lines. Grealish is popping up everywhere, drifting waif-like into threatening areas, but eventually it is his loose pass that runs out of play.
@NickAmes82 Watching from Sydney - I swear there's more noise coming from the (fairly calm) party next door than from the entire Etihad
— Paul (@flataboveashop) April 25, 2015
75 min: Villa, with N’Zogbia adding extra thrust, are going for this now. Bacuna swings in a lovely left-footed ball from the right and Benteke just can’t get onto it.
73 min: This has warmed up now, to give it its due.
73 min: Mangala makes a hash of a Hart ball out and Bacuna seizes upon it. He sets off down the right, can’t play Benteke in as Benteke is offside, and eventually fires in a low cross that is cleared. Then Grealish sends N’Zogbia away down the inside left and, right by the byline, Hart has to come out and block!
From Nadim Meer:
May I be one of 1,057 pedants to point out that surely Ivor Smith meant to say:
‘The City player’s name is Agüero, not Aguero.’?
You may. I, of course, was just trying to rise above it all.
70 min: This is probably better for Villa than than the situation at 1-0 had been as that goal will have given a tangible spur, a bit of self-made momentum. Just before it, Charles N’Zogbia replaced Westwood.
Goal! Manchester City 2-1 Aston Villa (Cleverley 68)
Not it isn’t! Villa put a free kick in from the left that Hart comes out to claim above a crowd....but one of his own men gets there first and heads the ball out. Only as far as Cleverley who, with Hart stranded, lashes a firm, bouncing shot from inside the D right down the middle and in! Game back on!
Goal! Manchester City 2-0 Aston Villa (Kolarov 66)
The free-kick is 30 yards out, slightly to the left. If a left-footer is to take it, he’ll have to go around the wall and into the near post. After Milner feints, Kolarov does exactly that – exploiting an inexplicable gap in a wall that seems to divide into two sections, and bending in a low effort that Guzan cannot keep out! That’s probably that.
Updated
65 min: And again encouraging as Aguero almost finds Zabaleta, in an uncharacteristic left-sided position inside the area. Then Okore challenges Silva and City claim a penalty, but Okore just got the ball first to my eyes even if rather messily. And after that, Sanchez is booked for a foul on – again – Silva....and....
64 min: Some of those City fans are still in the bar.
63 min: Nobody gets a touch on the corner, which bounces right through the box, and Milner doesn’t quite make clean contact on a strike from inside the D which is blocked.
62 min: A much better move from City sees Milner tee up a Kolarov ball again, and this time Vlaar hacks clear. Westwood has just been booked for an earlier foul, in the meantime. And now Sanchez has conceded a corner.
60 min: Milner’s first involvement is to find Kolarov, whose low cross is well gathered by Guzan. Guzan has had very little to do, which makes the way things have gone all the more gutting for Villa.
58 min: ....which Hart comes out for but can’t claim, and Ashley Westwood can’t quite capitalise as he tries to control on the edge of the box.
58 min: Deep free kick by Bacuna from the right and Demichelis, with nobody challenging him, gives away a sloppy corner....
57 min: Here is Milner, on for Lampard.
56 min: James Milner is coming on. I think City need a James Milner today.
55 min: Guzan, whose head must have cleared by now, gathers in front of Navas. Still think there is something here for Villa if they up the pace.....and as I write that, Grealish knocks the ball down for Delph, who weighs a clever half-volley not far wide.
53 min: City just getting on top again though, without creating a lot. Now Navas cuts a ball back for Lampard in Lampard Territory, but the ball is just too far in front of the veteran.
52 min: Aguero (sorry), who is running down some blind alleys today, stumbles in the right hand side of the box and the ball dribbles out of play.
From diacritics fan and long-time correspondent Ivor Smith:
“Dear Nick,
You asked for comments.
The City players name is Agüero, not Aguero.”
50 min: Sanchez pops in a decent ball for Benteke, whose header back to the edge of the area is almost a very good one but can’t quite find Cleverley.
49 min: Navas, who hasn’t done a lot since the early stages, crosses out of play. The atmosphere is still deathly silent. It is like a friendly, this. Can Villa take advantage?
48 min: Villa press now and Fernandinho blocks a Grealish shot.
47 min: Lampard releases Aguero with a slide-rule pass but, uncharacteristically, he takes too many touches and runs into a defender.
Peeeeeeep! City get us going for the second half
And Fernandinho is on for Yaya Toure, who picked up an injury in the first half and was clearly struggling. David Silva is booked in the half’s first action.
Raphael Vallet offers: “I have no interest whatsoever in this game or either team, but I do think Villa’s thin hoops on their socks look really quite fetching. I think all teams should adopt them.”
You know who pioneered the hooped sock, Raphael? I shall tell you anyway. The former Arsenal manager, Herbert Chapman.
But what do you think? You’ve gone quiet. What’s up with City?
Thought City looked hungry for a while after the early giveaway but, much like their season, their performance has just atrophied. Can they lift it again? Either way, looks like some summer surgery is badly needed.
Half-time: Manchester City 1-0 Aston Villa
Ludicrous goal, very sloppy start from Villa, but end-of-season stuff from City at a silent Etihad after the first 15 or 20 minutes. Decent recovery from Villa, and a good chance that Benteke should have converted, but this is not a good game. Stay with us though! Stay with us!
45+1 min: Benteke holds the ball up well on the halfway line and almost springs the sprinting Grealish clear, but Mangala gets tight to him and blocks.
45 min: Villa are first to everything now. More supporters have gone for a beer. Or a soft drink. Or pretty much any other pursuit.
44 min: Better ball from Delph, clipped in, and eventually the ball is worked back to him. His second ball seems to give Grealish a half-chance but he’s actually offside.
43 min: City are now playing just as Villa did in the first 20 minutes or so. No pace, intensity, energy, nothing. But they’re getting away with it. Villa win another flag kick....
42 min: Many of the crowd seem to have gone for a beer. Were I among them, I’d be doing that too.
41 min: Villa counter and Grealish plays another well-weighted ball out to Delph. The position is good but his cross is blocked before it can get anywhere dangerous. But you do wonder, at the moment, what would have happened by now if Villa had not gifted City that ridiculous early goal.
39 min: City haven’t done anything for considerably more than 15 minutes now. You can hear individual cries in the crowd.
37 min: That one is headed away, and Villa’s momentum is checked.
36 min: Benteke wriggles away from Demichelis, but is eventually fouled by the Argentinian. Free-kick 35 yards out and just to the left. Delph’s ball goes beyond everyone but is salvaged by Okore, who is then sliced down by Kolarov by the corner flag for a better-positioned free kick.
35 min: Grealish combines very nicely with Delph to tee up Bacuna, but Kolarov blocks the cross. Then, on the other flank, Richardson puts the ball in for Benteke, who beats two men to the ball but heads over again. Fair play to Villa, they’re playing well for now after that awful start.
32 min: And more encouragement for Villa, Grealish getting onto a Benteke flick, leaving Demichelis on the floor and then teeing up Cleverley in space to his right. But Cleverley slips and toe-stubs it wide.
32 min: A half-chance for Villa now, Delph crossing low from the left and it bounces – just a little too high – for Cleverley, who can’t control his shot and sends it well off target.
31 min: Villa are working their way back into this now. The stats do show that they have had equal possession but that doesn’t mean a thing and isn’t “interesting” as the commentators claim. Man City scored from Villa’s possession.
29 min: Yes, Benteke was well offside when Vlaar wound up to shoot, but the ball came off Zabaleta into his path and he was active again. Huge chance for Villa, that.
27 min: Delph’s ball into the near post is cleared by Lampard....but it’s not dealt with subsequently and what a chance for Benteke! The ball eventually falls for him, all alone, 12 yards out and with absolutely everyone bar him and Hart assuming that he’s offside, Benteke sees his attempt to place the ball into the net repelled by the ‘keeper’s legs!
26 min: Fernando then does something similar with a ball for Kolarov. Bit scrappy just now. But Villa win a corner, Demichelis on Benteke....
25 min: Sanchez capitalises on a Silva slip but then plays an awful ball, intended I assume for Benteke, out of play.
24 min: Villa are just lacking any of the intensity of recent weeks. And they’re still a team that needs to be “on it” to have any chance in games like this.
22 min: And now some generosity from Bacuna, whose shocking backpass is telegraphed to Aguero. Villa, namely Vlaar, just about get back to clear the danger.
21 min: The second corner, by Grealish, is decent and headed over by Benteke.
Replays galore of Guzan’s blunder, by the way. He was trying to spread the ball right, I think to Bacuna, and ended up kicking it against his standing foot. It squirted over to Aguero. Ouch.
Updated
20 min: Benteke wins Villa a controversial corner, nicking a ball away from Hart and off the ‘keeper. Hart didn’t have the ball under control, though. Mangala heads behind for another.
Updated
18 min: Better from Villa, with Bacuna getting forward down the right again and crossing to Benteke, who nods the ball back well at the far post but is offside. In histrionics news, Tim Sherwood is doing...not much on the touchline.
17 min: Free-kick to City on the left. Kolarov wraps his boot around it and Guzan is absolutely nowhere, totally missing the ball and Fernando, angles wrong, heads wide of the empty net. Guzan needs to compose himself here.
15 min: Okore clears uncertainly and almost very conveniently for Aguero, who then slips. Then Guzan, predictably the focus of the crowd’s attention when receiving the ball, makes a clean clearance! And after that, Grealish tries to feed the ball into an invisible Delph. It finds Joe Hart.
13 min: City look up for this – I’m sure Pellegrini won’t want them to ease off now, as there are some points to prove.
11 min: Bacuna does superbly up against Kolarov down the left, first bringing the ball down in a tight area and then outmuscling him. He gets a cross in and Benteke looks to lay back to Delph, but it’s cleared and at the other end Sanchez has to concede a corner from the sprinting Aguero. It comes to nothing at first, but eventually Aguero gets in a 20-yarder that Guzan saves low to his right.
9 min: Silva tries to pick the lock and appeals for a handball, but no dice. Then we see the first of Grealish and indeed Villa, in a move that sees Richardson make some inroads down the left before Navas gets back to clear.
8 min: City have had a few early gifts like that this season – I remember the game with Newcastle, for instance, when they were handed a penalty before the match had really started. Same again here, but worse from Villa’s perspective. Villa are yet to do anything. That was one of the big blunders, there, from Guzan.
6 min: Villa had started the game quite casually, knocking it about at the back willy nilly, and you wonder if the atmosphere had just lulled them a little.
Now they give Silva all sorts of space following a corner but Delph blocks, then Yaya Toure shoots wide from 25 yards.
Goal! Manchester City 1-0 Aston Villa (Aguero 3)
My goodness. That is awful. And it was presaged in my first update. Vlaar knocks the ball back to Guzan, a bit inconveniently, and the goalkeeper looks to wrap his left foot around the ball and send it right. Right it does go, but skewed horribly right across the six-yard box...where Aguero is alert to tap in. Dear me!
Updated
2 min: Navas gets in the way of an early Vlaar clearance and it spins back to Guzan. It sounds quiet at the Etihad and there are some empty seats. So lets imagine it’s a Champions League night.
Peeeeep! We are underway!
Villa do the honours.
A minute’s silence now, as earlier, for the victims of the Bradford fire.
Randal Smathers has had an exciting day:
“Well since you asked, Team Orange pounded Team Red in U8 4-on-4 play. Or maybe lost ... or drew. But everybody ran around for 90 minutes. We’re expecting better from this one, right?”
90 minutes?!! This is why England are so dreadful, etc etc.
The teams are out at the Etihad! As has just been pointed out on The Telly, this pits the highest-scoring team in the Premier League against the lowest scorers in the country. 4-3 Villa, then.
Do send your emails, tweets, and the rest to the addresses above. How’s your day been?
Incidentally, it’s good to see David Silva in the City side after such a big injury scare in the West Ham game last week. Looked very worrying at the time. As you saw from the Villa lineups, Gabriel Agbonlahor is still absent for the visitors.
.@AVFCOfficial boss Tim Sherwood reacts to today's 3pm kick-offs as the results come in. #cityvvilla pic.twitter.com/LP1n4SjtXw
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) April 25, 2015
It’ll be interesting to see Jack Grealish, headline-maker on and off the pitch in the last seven days, in action today. This is just his third Premier League start – two big performances in as many big games would certainly suggest this lad has it in his locker to be something special.
Here, by the way, is what happened last time these two met. Although things have changed a bit since then...
Some of those results – namely wins for Hull and Leicester – have Consequences. Broadly, they leave Villa just two points above the drop zone now. They really could do with something here...
Full-times elsewhere now, of course. Check them out on Niall McVeigh’s Clockwatch. It’s been a pretty dramatic day...including a new addition to the Premier League.
The referee is Mr Mike Dean.
Aston Villa team and subs
#AVFC (v @MCFC): Guzan, Bacuna, Okore, Vlaar, Richardson, Sanchez, Westwood, Cleverley, Delph, Grealish, Benteke. #AVFCLIVE
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) April 25, 2015
#AVFC subs (v @MCFC): Given, Weimann, Cole, Senderos, Cissokho, N'Zogbia, Lowton. #AVFCLIVE
— Aston Villa FC (@AVFCOfficial) April 25, 2015
Manchester City team and subs
TEAM NEWS @MCFC: Hart, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Mangala, Kolarov, Fernando, Lampard, Navas, Yaya Toure, Silva, Aguero #cityvvilla
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) April 25, 2015
SUBS NEWS @MCFC: Caballero, Sagna, Boyata, Fernandinho, Nasri, Dzeko, Bony #cityvvilla
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) April 25, 2015
Good late-afternoon
Very light outside these days isn’t it? Makes you see everything from a different perspective. Including, perhaps, Tim Sherwood. Suave he ain’t, Wordsworth he certainly isn’t, genius he might not be, but there’s been enough so far in his brief Aston Villa reign to suggest that – horror! – he could actually be quite a good football manager.
If you’ve been watching the games rather than the dugouts you’ll note that Villa have won five of their last eight and have a trip to Wembley in their sights after that impressive showing last weekend against Liverpool. A lot of their success – they’re only four points clear of the relegation zone but in context it’s success – has come as a result of a higher-tempo style, getting the ball forwards and wide more quickly than the slightly more methodical approach favoured by Paul Lambert. Blood and thunder just like their manager, etcetera and so forth, but not quite true – they’ve been playing positively and attractively, which is no bad thing.
Manchester City would not have put the FA Cup too high on their list of priorities at the start of the season but Manuel Pellegrini probably wishes he had a trip to north-west London in his sights now. City arrested their slump out of title contention with a routine win over West Ham last week and, although Villa’s momentum could make this a yet tricker test, will be optimistic of putting pressure back on Manchester United and Arsenal above them. Victory would take them second, for 20 hours or so at least, with the other two facing tough games against Everton and Chelsea tomorrow. It all feels a bit deflating from a City perspective but you would expect that they’ll want to salvage something from their campaign and it certainly would not do Manuel Pellegrini any favours if they slip up some more. The name “Jurgen Klopp” might start being aired liberally if they fail today.
Worth reiterating that Villa are by no means out of the relegation woods yet – others have games in hand on them too, and defeat here might make things a little awkward again.
So join me. Kick-off is at 5.30pm.
