Aston Villa 2-1 Manchester City: Durán and Rogers inflict another damaging defeat for City

Manchester City were deservedly defeated at Villa Park on Saturday, falling to a ninth defeat in their past 12 games across all competitions and slumping to sixth in the Premier League table.

Pep Guardiola’s side fell behind early on with Jhon Durán slotting home shortly after the quarter-hour mark, with Morgan Rogers adding to their lead in the second half before Phil Foden bagged a consolatory goal in stoppage time.

Aston Villa leapfrog the Cityzens to claim fifth in the league table, while Manchester City now sit nine points adrift of leaders Liverpool despite having played two games more than Arne Slot’s Reds.

As it happened

Away trips haven’t treated Pep Guardiola all too kindly this season, and the warning signs of yet another difficult afternoon were visible from the very first exchanges at Villa Park on Saturday.

Deputising for the injured Emerson, Stefan Ortega was called upon twice to pick up the pieces of a fractured Manchester City defence inside the opening minute; first denying Jhon Durán before turning a Pau Torres header onto the crossbar.

But the German goalkeeper wasn’t able to produce the required heroics when Durán found himself through on goal 15 minutes later, with the explosive forward slotting home after a fine through ball from Youri Tielemans had picked out the advancing Morgan Rogers.

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Bad turned to worse shortly after the hour mark as Rogers – who spent two years with City before his stint at Middlesbrough – rolled a low finish past Ortega; all but confirming that this would be the ninth defeat in 12 games for the visitors.

Phil Foden did manage to halve the deficit late on, but with his strike coming in the 93rd minute, there was no time left for the Cityzens to salvage anything meaningful from yet another dismal performance.

Saturday’s visitors will be hoping for a much-improved showing when they host 16th-placed Everton on Boxing Day, before rounding out the year with a trip to Leicester City. Meanwhile, Aston Villa head to Newcastle before hosting a Brighton on December 30.

The lineups

AVL: Martínez; Digne, Torres, Konsa, Cash; Onana, Kamara; Rogers, Tielemans, McGinn; Durán

MCI: Ortega; Gvardiol, Stones, Akanji, Lewis; Kovačić, Gündoğan; Grealish, Foden, Silva; Haaland

_{FEATURED IMAGE: Rob Atherton}