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Location
- Villa park
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Judge
- Peter Bankes
Nicolas Jackson 6′
Nicolas Jackson 60′
Erling Haaland 52′
Manchester City’s perfect start to the Premier League season ended with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa.
Nicolas Jackson scored either side of Erling Haaland’s header to give Unai Emery’s side a memorable victory – their first of the campaign – and a first league defeat for City boss Enzo Maresca.
The result opens the door for defending champions Arsenal to go level on points with City if they can beat Everton today.
Meanwhile, the result for Villa means the West Midlanders move up to sixth place and have now won seven of their last nine matches in all competitions.
Jackson strikes early
A frenetic opening saw Villa break the deadlock after just six minutes when John McGinn pounced on a heavy touch from Marc Guehi before finding Jackson.
The Senegal international headed the ball into the box before hitting the ball into the roof of the net, bouncing beyond a sliding Elliot Anderson.
The city was stunned. Amid a raucous home crowd at Villa Park, Maresca’s men struggled to gain a foothold in the game.
However, the league leaders still managed to grab chances, courtesy of the best of their brightest creative spark, Iliman Ndiaye.
Ndiaye had earlier seen an effort palmed away impressively by Sion Suzuki in Villa’s goal, before Jackson parried the shot wide.
Electric second half
After the opening 45, Maresca made two changes at half-time, replacing Guehi and Ryan Cherki with midweek hat-trick scorers Rico Lewis and Phil Foden.
It took just eight minutes for City to equalize after the restart and it came from a familiar source. From Ndiaye’s free-kick deflection, Haaland rose highest to direct a firm header past Suzuki.
The Villa goalkeeper stepped up to prevent City from completing their comeback when he saved well from Josko Guardiola from close range.
With the visitors on top, Jeremy Dock, largely silenced by the impressive Matty Cash, curled the wrong side of the post before the home side struck a header on the hour mark.
After a sweeping counter, substitute Ibrahim Mbaye’s first move of the game saw him race down the right and lay the ball back to Jackson, who fired first time under Gianluigi Donnarumma, who perhaps should have done better.
This was the decisive moment of the match. Villa saw out the game to become the first team to take points from City in the league this season.
Aston Villa
Manchester City
Premier League Schedule
Position 1, 2, 3, 4: promotion – Champions League (League stage)
Position 5: Promotion – Europa League (League stage)
Position 18, 19, 20 : Relegation – Championship