5 Things we learned from Aston Villa’s momentous win against Man City

1. After all the turmoil over the summer Aston Villa have actually improved this season. Unai Emery has worked miracles with this side over the last few years and today was a clear indication that Villa’s work over the summer the right way to go, Emery’s side took the lead just six minutes in as Guehi’s poor touch landed straight to McGinn who played Jackson through down the left who feinted past Anderson before firing the ball into the roof of the net to put Villa 1-0 up early on. City responded well after the goal and should have equalised throughout the course of the first half with Iliman Ndiaye going close a number of times including hitting the post along with Rayan Cherki who had an effort brilliantly saved by Suzuki in the Villa goal, you got the feeling at half-time that a City goal was coming in the second 45 but Villa did look dangerous when they broke forward on the counter. The City goal did eventually come in the 52nd minute as Ndiaye picked up the ball on the right before hanging a cross into Erling Haaland who rose above Lindelof to head City level right at the start of the second half, it looked like City had all the momentum but it was Villa who struck next as Jackson launched the ball to Mbaye on the right who sped down the wing before cutting it back to Jackson who’s first-time shot squirmed underneath Donnarumma to put Villa 2-1 up in the 60th minute. The goal seemed to knock City’s confidence as their play in the final third for the last 30 minutes was awful and in the end they fell to their first defeat of the Premier League season so far, a memorable day for Villa who continue their now eight game unbeaten streak.

2. I’m loving this Villa side so far this season. It seems to be the case every year that Emery’s side begin the season terribly then suddenly go on this crazy unbeaten run and that sequence is happening once again at Villa Park, their business over the summer raised eyebrows but when you look at it now I think they’ve upgraded on almost every position in the team. Jackson is better than Watkins, Suzuki is better than current Emi Martinez, Manzambi in my opinion is better than Morgan Rogers, Mbaye is going to be a superstar and they’ve added the likes of Joao Gomes and Leon Goretzka who fill the void left by Youri Tielemans. You might disagree with a few of those opinions I think today was a clear indication of the strength of this Villa side even if they did get dominated in patches by City, the star was Nicolas Jackson who I’ll talk about a bit later but you’ve still got the likes of Matty Cash, Victor Lindelof, Joao Gomes etc who massively contributed to Villa picking up all three points today. Unai Emery’s track record of improving players is out of this world and he’s doing it with players that were thrown away by their previous clubs like Lindelof, Jackson, Barkley, Buendia etc who have all played a massive part in this Villa resurgence in the last month or so. It’s hard to know what the ceiling is for this Villa side this season but I’d imagine they’ll be in and around those Champions League spots once again, not many would have said that back in August.

3. Poor decision making in the final third lets City down. That’s not something I’ve said much about City so far this season but some the attackers today were miles below the level we normally see them at, Jeremy Doku got locked up by Matty Cash for the entire game along with Rayan Cherki who got hooked at half-time for yet another game this season. Phil Foden came on and was arguably worse than the Frenchman making very little impact on the game in the second half, Marseca yet again started Cherki and Fernandez in midfield which he should know by now clearly doesn’t work and leaves Anderson all by himself in the middle. The Englishman is a more than capable runner but simply cannot cover the massive void left by those two in midfield, I was shocked to yet again see Bouaddi on the bench for the entire game after looking so good against PSG but I suppose Maresca doesn’t quite trust him yet. You could certainly look at Donnarumma for both goals City conceded today and argue he should save both, the second one in particular looked a real howler and I think Maresca will be worried at the volume of errors so far from his Italian goalkeeper who got showed up massively by Suzuki today in the opposite goal. Defensively City have looked extremely vulnerable at times so far this season and yet another error by Marc Guehi won’t help his confidence with Maresca taking him off at half-time, Rico Lewis came on and followed on from Guehi’s performance by also being terrible crossing the ball out of play a number of times which is right out of the Diogo Dalot playbook. Overall City will remain top of the league even if Arsenal win later on but it was certainly a day off for the league leaders, how worried should Maresca be? I don’t really know.

4. Why did so many clubs pass up on Nicolas Jackson in the summer? Ever since Jackson came to the Premier League a few years ago I’ve had a soft spot for the Senegalese striker and I really don’t think there’s too many better number nines in the league currently, he was available all summer and was linked with the likes of Man United, Spurs, Newcastle etc yet it took until August for Villa to finally come in and pick him up from Chelsea. The two goals he scored today brings him up to seven goals in all competitions which is remarkable considering he was cast out by Xabi Alonso at the start of August, he’s absolutely an upgrade over Ollie Watkins and we’ve already seen that at the start of this season. The way he unselfishly presses for the team along with actually looking fairly clinical at the start of this season is a perfect recipe for Unai Emery who previously managed him at Villareal a few years back, no matter what you think about Jackson he scores goals anywhere he goes and you can’t say that about a lot of strikers. I have a feeling Chelsea will come to regret letting him go this summer, I know they have Joao Pedro but Jackson can play anywhere across that frontline, there’s a twenty plus goal season loading for Jackson if he can stay fit. I hope he can do it.

5. What’s up next for these two sides? Both sides are in Carabao Cup action this week with Aston Villa taking a trip to Bournemouth on Wednesday before coming back to Villa Park next Saturday to take on Fulham, For City they have back-to-back games with Brighton coming up at the Etihad with the first one in the cup on Wednesday before playing the Seagulls yet again on Saturday, a nasty couple of games for City to try and rebuild the momentum they lost today. As for me I’ll be back later on with Chelsea vs Spurs so stay tuned for that one, should be a fun one.