Aston Villa 3-2 Manchester City; Villians stage an upset as Pellegrini is left shell shocked

Aston Villa pulled off an impossible feat at home against Manchester City winning 3-2 on an evening which saw them trail the Manchester team twice. They came back to level the score each time, and went on to even add the winner, when Brad Guzan did a Manuel Neuer with his inch perfect goal kick. Manuel Pellegrini will be disappointed with the referee team of Mike Jones and co. who played a crucial role in the match. Though there was a lot of tactical play with interesting shapes, set pieces became the norm of the day as the match was turned on its head with them.

Starting lineups

Aston Villa (3-5-2): Guzan – Clark, Vlaar, Baker – Luna, Bacuna, Delph, El Ahmadi, Sylla – Kozak, Weimann

Manchester City (4-4-2): Hart – Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic, Kolarov – Nasri, Yaya Toure, Fernandinho, Milner – Negredo, Dzeko

Formations and matchup

Though both managers opted for different formations than their usual ones, it was one still one sided with City dominating the game from the first minute. Paul Lambert has been using a 3-man defence formation since last season, but today, he didn’t have flying wingers and Christian Benteke. So, he went for the 3-5-2 shape, often played by Juventus. Manuel Pellegrini changed his formation to 4-4-2 from the conventional 4-2-3-1, to accommodate two of his strikers.

For City, James Milner and Samir Nasri were deployed as wingers, with Yaya Toure and Fernandinho positioned in the midfield. The back 4 were unchanged from the previous match. Alvaro Negredo paired up with Edin Dzeko upfront. Aston Villa didn’t have the services of Agbonlahor and Benteke, so Lambert tweaked his usual 3-4-3 to slot in another midfielder and make it a 3-5-2-ish shape. Clark, Vlaar and Baker teamed up in the 3 man defense with Antonio Luna and Bacuna playing as wingbacks. Sylla was preferred in the midfield over Westwood, along with Delph and El Ahmadi. Weimann and Kozak played as the striker duo.

It was all congested in the middle of the pitch, with Villa’s three players and City’s two midfielders. For City, it was 2 vs 2 at the back, as Weimann and Kozak were up against Nastasic and Kompany. But, the city centre back duo was surprisingly comfortable dealing with the Villa forwards. This was mainly due to the drifting of Weimann into deep positions, leaving Kozak alone in attack. On the other side, it was a 3 vs 2 situation for the Villa backline, so they had a spare man to tackle the threat of Dzeko and Negredo. In the midfield, it was a 3 vs 2 again, in favor of Villa, with Toure and Fernandinho getting outnumbered, at least on paper.

Aston Villa v Manchester City – Formations

With Villa having numbers advantage in the center of the pitch from defence to attack, it was the wings where they were going to take a beating. Man City had four players up against the two wingbacks Luna and Bacuna, and this was where Pellegrini’s men had the upper hand. But, this was only on paper. In reality, Samir Nasri became the story of the first half, repeating his influential performance from Old Trafford last week. While he was deployed as a winger, he didn’t actually play there. He positioned himself in a much narrower attacking role, closing down the Villa backline. The move from Nasri made it a 3 vs 3 situation for the home defence, and forced Fabian Delph to drop deep to make up the numbers.

On the other flank, Luna was taking on Zabaleta and Milner at once. Sylla came to help out his wingback by drifting onto the wing and marking Zabaleta, and easing the pressure on Luna. All this movement meant El Ahmadi was alone in the middle with Fernandinho and Toure running directly at him. Andreas Weimann’s frequent runs into deep positions sort of made up the numbers in midfield, but Yaya Toure was happy to take on any number of players by himself.

The major source of attack for Man City in the first half was from the left flank, where Kolarov was getting loads of space to run into, as he beat Bacuna time and again to launch dangerous crosses into the box. The link up play between, Toure, Nasri, Negredo released Kolarov into space on the flanks, and the Serbian was having a field day with his crossing.

The goals

Yaya Toure’s unmarked goal right on the stroke of half time, gave the advantage for Pellegrini for his half time pep talk. He made no changes and City were instructed to play on the same tune as the first half. Paul Lambert though worked his motivating skills to full effect during his half time speech. Aston Villa looked a different side after the break. They were playing with renewed energy and pressing City players all over the pitch.

Villa could get into the dominating position with their pressing only after the first 5 minutes of the second half. The period from the 50 to 55 minute mark saw Aston Villa peg Man City into their own half, and thanks to a wrong call from the linesman, El Ahmadi who was offside, fired in a shot into the bottom corner, beating Joe Hart.

Weimann celebrates his winner against Manchester City

The visitors had an instant reply as Edin Dzeko put his team back on top with an improvised back header from a Samir Nasri corner. But Aston Villa were still seeing a lot of the ball and were matching the stats of City. What changed the face of the game was the involvement of Andreas Weimann in Villa’s passing lanes. Lambert instructed his team to overload the left wing of City. On one wing, it was Ahmadi, Delph, Bacuna and Weimann taking on Kolarov, Toure and Nasri. Pellegrini, seeking better discipline on that wing, introduced Jesus Navas for Samir Nasri. Navas slotted in in his customary right wing position and James Milner moved to the left wing.

City were again dominating the play now, as they had a direct runner in Navas on the right wing. So, Villa opted the direct route to unsettle the rhythm City had just generated. Kozak moved into deeper positions, taking on Yaya Toure and trying to drag Nastasic out of position. Weimann on the other hand, was making runs behind Kozak searching for the headed flicks from his teammate. A foul on Weimann outside the box, resulted in a free kick which was converted beautifully by Bacuna into a picturesque goal. Joe Hart was motionless. Pellegrini introduced Jovetic for Dezko, hoping to add a bit more intelligent movement upfront.

But all hell broke loose when Weimann was one-on-one with Joe Hart in the blink of an eye and helped the ball past the England No.1 and the goal line. Brad Guzan claimed the assist, as his quick-fire long ball bypassed every City player. Weimann won the race against Nastasic and Kompany and outfoxed the keeper to score an unforgettable goal for his team. The whole buildup was strikingly similar to Manuel Neuer’s goal kick which lead to a goal in the 2010 World Cup. The fact that the goal had come in the after math of an open play move by City, raises questions on the positioning of their midfielders.

The end

City tried their best to salvage the match with a draw, but nothing would break the now resolute Villa defense. Jordan Bowery was sent in for a limping Weimann to add more height in attack. Villa took the direct route whenever the opportunity presented itself and defended in numbers to claim their first home victory of the season. Sheer persistence and a fair amount of luck were the prime factors in their victory.

Pellegrini will go back to the drawing board to work on his team’s defensive shortcomings which were the very case in their downfall last season. The communication between the centre backs and the full backs needs to get better and the centre backs themselves have to be more careful in their positioning while defending counters. If this problem isn’t sorted quickly, City may fall behind the London clubs in the race for the title.

Statistically, Man City dug themselves into the match completely. They had an insane 39 crosses into the box, 21 shots of which 7 were on target, 13 corners and 34 headed duels of which they won 20. It was a commanding performance from the City team, but 99% of work doesn’t get you victories, the other 1% is as important the rest of the 99. And, Aston Villa capitalized on that minor 1%, to earn a memorable victory.

It is difficult to judge the best player on the pitch when there is such a drastic turnaround of events in a very short span of time. Going by the statistics, Yaya Toure was the best player on the pitch by miles. His pass completion rate of 94% and accuracy on the long balls coupled with the first half goal makes him the player of the match, but only for the losing side.