Colombian forward Jhon Duran and former City forward Morgan Rogers gave Aston Villa a 2-1 Premier League victory on Saturday, further inflicting further suffering on a beleaguered Manchester City.
With their ninth defeat in 12 games across all competitions, the premier league champions dropped provisionally to sixth place, while Villa moved up to fifth place.
Even if his club can finish as low as ninth by the end of the weekend and just have one win from that 12-game run, Pep Guardiola is still hopeful that results will be achieved.
Villa got off to a fast start and nearly scored inside 20 seconds when Duran jumped on a bad pass from Josko Gvardiol, but Stefan Ortega’s diving header blocked his attempt.
In the ensuing corner, Ortega made another excellent stop, deflecting Pau Torres’ attempt off the crossbar.
The close call portended future events.
The home team’s goal came in the 16th minute thanks to a beautiful through pass from Youri Tielemans to Rogers, whose selfless assist set up 21-year-old Duran to score.
Former Villa super-sub Duran, who started for the third straight league game and scored in all three, made another statement to secure a permanent place in the starting 11.
On Saturday, he also had a goal disallowed for offside.
When Rogers grabbed a pass from captain John McGinn and finished with a low, powerful shot in the 65th minute, Villa Park erupted once more, leaving Guardiola shaking his head in exasperation.
After Villa’s Lucas Digne made a mistake, Phil Foden scored City’s first league goal of the season in stoppage time, but it was too little, too late for the visitors.
After a one-two with Rico Lewis, Foden had City’s best chances, including one in the first half that put Villa’s World Cup-winning custodian Emi Martinez to the test.
