For Manchester City and Erling Haaland, another fruitless visit to Villa Park. It was not quite last season, when defeat here approaching Christmas was a ninth in a dozen matches, but it was equally painful.
With a minute of regular time to play, Haaland clattered into a post after meeting an inch-perfect cross by Omar Marmoush, having squeezed the ball over the Aston Villa goalline. But the assistant referee raised his flag and, as Haaland lay wincing, a check by the video assistant referee confirmed the goal would not stand. City departed this stadium empty‑handed for a third successive season.
There is sufficiently much more positivity surrounding Pep Guardiola’s side at present but this proved another frustrating trip, Matty Cash’s superbly taken first-half strike ultimately the difference.
For Villa, this was a welcome return to winning ways after a shock Europa League defeat at the mid-table Eredivisie side Go Ahead Eagles on Thursday. After starting the season with a five-match winless run, Unai Emery has now presided over four successive wins in the Premier League and, with his team in eighth, things are looking up before travelling to Liverpool on Saturday.
On his previous visit here Haaland registered 18 touches, just one in the opposition box, and afterwards criticised his own all-round performance. This time he managed 16, recording three in the Villa penalty area, and City’s clearest efforts on goal were tame efforts courtesy of Haaland, who twice saw Emiliano Martínez comfortably gather.
On the hour, at the end of another wave of City pressure, Pau Torres celebrated like he had scored a goal – clenching both of his fists and emitting a roar in front of the North Stand – after his right boot had diverted a Savinho strike over for a corner.
With three minutes of the 90 remaining, the home support cheered in unison as Martínez gobbled up a potentially deceiving deflected shot by Rayan Cherki, one of those players Guardiola called upon to change the course of the game. Cash, the catalyst for Emi Buendía’s superb winner at Tottenham last week, was the out-and-out hero, controlling a first-half corner with his right foot before driving inside and lashing a left-foot strike into Gianluigi Donnarumma’s net with his next touch.
Villa had been vulnerable of late from set pieces but here they prospered from a corner routine perfected on the training ground, even if Buendía’s pass was meant for Morgan Rogers, who failed to connect. Cash took the pace off the ball just outside City’s 18-yard box and then, off-balance, wellied a sweet left-foot strike into the bottom corner. “It’s something we worked on yesterday [on Saturday] in training, but it wasn’t meant for me,” Cash said.
A smile unravelled on the face of Austin MacPhee, Villa’s set-piece coach who was back on the touchline with crutches after sustaining a leg injury on international duty; the Scot, who was absent for Villa’s previous two matches, was appointed this year to Roberto Martínez’s Portugal staff.
For Villa, this was also an afternoon to cherish the work of some of their unsung heroes, none more so than Cash. He did not only prove the matchwinner but he brilliantly shackled Jérémy Doku as well as any full-back can contain a winger as explosive as Doku, at one point celebrating winning a duel after the City substitute whizzed to the byline. Ezri Konsa, now a regular for England under Thomas Tuchel, was superb at centre-back and the one time he played a loose pass into midfield he made amends by extending himself to block Savinho’s subsequent cross.
Amadou Onana probably enjoyed one of his best games in a Villa shirt, ousting Haaland off the ball close to halfway to cheers in the first half and in the closing stages threw himself in the way of a Phil Foden strike as City probed for an equaliser. Ross Barkley, who replaced John McGinn late on, also made an important block.
Cash’s goal was the first time City had trailed since going behind at Brighton in August but it was hard to be too critical of their response. City, in their garish third kit laced with bright blue and yellow which, supposedly, pays tribute to the Mancunian weather, finished up with 18 shots, four on target, three courtesy of Haaland.
The Norwegian’s first chance was probably the most inviting of the trio but, after latching on to Bernardo Silva’s through ball, his shot was too easy for Martínez to read, too close to the goalkeeper. Midway through the second half he headed straight at Martínez after leaping high to meet Foden’s chipped cross. In the penultimate minute of stoppage time another was easily gathered.
City’s third strip is, they say, for those who carry City in their hearts, rain or shine. This was a grey day.
