Aston Villa inflicted more misery on Manchester City on Saturday, beating the Premier League defending champions 2-1 with goals from Jhon Durán and former City forward Morgan Rogers.
Villa rose above City into fifth place in the Premier League table, and the title holders dropped provisionally to sixth with their ninth loss in 12 games across all competitions.
While Pep Guardiola’s team could fall to as low as ninth by the end of the weekend and have just one victory to show from that 12-game stretch, the manager remains optimistic results will come.
“It can come, it can not come,” Guardiola told the BBC. “It depends on us. The solution is bring the players back [from injuries]. We have just one central defender fit, that is difficult. We are going to try next game — another opportunity and we don’t think much further than that.”
In a rip-roaring start, Villa almost scored inside 20 seconds when Duran pounced on a poor ball by Josko Gvardiol but his shot was pushed away by a diving Stefan Ortega. Ortega made another fine save from the corner that followed, batting Pau Torres’ shot away off the crossbar.
The narrow miss was a sign of things to come. Duran, 21, got the home side on the score sheet in the 16th minute when Youri Tielemans sent a sumptuous through ball to Rogers, whose unselfish pass found Duran free to fire home.
It was another statement for a permanent spot in the starting 11 by former Villa super-sub Duran, who started for the third successive league game, and has scored in all three. He also had a goal chalked off for offside on Saturday.