Man City lose 100% PL record with defeat at Villa

Manchester City suffered defeat for the first time in the Premier League this season when Nicolas Jackson‘s double earned Aston Villa a 2-1 victory at Villa Park.

Unai Emery’s side continued its turnaround in form after a slow start to the campaign and picked up a fourth straight win across all competitions, and its first league victory at home this season.

Manchester City do not enjoy visiting Villa Park and have now lost their last four league games there, while Enzo Maresca saw his 100% league start as City boss vanish.

The defeat meant that, later on Saturday, Arsenal were able to draw level on points with City at the top of the table as they beat Everton 2-0 at the Emirates, although City remain top on goal difference.

Another tough afternoon for City in the West Midlands started when Marc Guéhi‘s mistake allowed Jackson to give Villa an early lead.

Villa had keeper Zion Suzuki to thank for making several vital saves, and Iliman Ndiaye crashed an effort off the post as Villa held strong to take the lead into the break.

Erling Haaland grabbed his ninth league goal of the season to get City level, but Jackson buried his second of the afternoon — his fourth of the season — on the hour mark to hand Villa the points.

The visitors were greeted with more boos from an away ground ahead of kickoff after they were found guilty of serious breaches of the competition’s financial regulations last month.

City conceded a corner after Gianluigi Donnarumma took too long to take his goal kick, which put City on the back foot, and Villa’s quick start was rewarded with the opener in the sixth minute.

Guéhi was unable to control the ball and instead spilled it into the path of John McGinn, who played it into Jackson, and he expertly finished into the top of the net.

The early goal did not dent City’s confidence, and they were denied an equalizer when Suzuki sprang right to push Ndiaye’s curling effort away.

The Japan goalkeeper was getting busier by the minute. He put out an outstretched arm to thwart Rayan Cherki following some neat footwork by Jérémy Doku before stopping Abdukodir Khusanov from range.

Ndiaye had already threatened Suzuki once by cutting inside and letting one rip, and he did it again, only to see the effort slam off the outside of the post.

Haaland had a quiet first half but made his contribution seven minutes after the break to get City level when he nodded Ndiaye’s cross past Suzuki.

City’s onslaught continued and Villa’s woodwork was rattled again; this time Suzuki tipped Josko Gvardiol‘s ferocious strike off the bar.

And that save proved decisive as Villa retook the lead just as it looked like City were turning up the heat on the hour mark.

Villa turned defense into attack with precision. Victor Lindelöf‘s ball set them on the front foot and it ended up with substitute Ibrahim Mbaye, and his first major contribution was to tee up Jackson, who saw his strike squeeze past Donnarumma.

City threw everything at getting an equalizer, and Haaland thought he nodded City level for a second time, but his goal-bound header was blocked by Ian Maatsen as Villa took the points.

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After the game, City boss Maresca praised his team’s performance.

“I think we deserved more from the game, for the amount of chances that we created and for the chances that we conceded,” he said.

“We lost because we were probably not being clinical enough in their box. Sometimes when you concede the first goal because of a mistake. The second goal came from a transition, it’s difficult to avoid.

“We will try to learn from the game, move on and try to improve.”

He also defended Guéhi, whose mistake led to the opener and whom Maresca substituted at halftime.

“It’s just a technical decision, like it happens in all the games that the manager decides to make a change,” he said.

“I’m not worried about Marc at all. I know that he is playing every minute since the season started with us and with the international team.

“It’s not easy but the change was also because he had a yellow card, and the way we want to be aggressive sometimes, to have one yellow card can be dangerous. But I’m not worried at all.”

Information from PA contributed to this report.