I have to be honest, I’m sure I was not in the minority when I thought we had very little hope of getting anything today against a Man City side that are amongst the favourites to win the league.
It was a very subdued Villa Park in the first half, where it seemed things were going to plan, with City being massively dominant all over the pitch.
We were conceding corners left, right and centre, but in fairness, I thought the five at the back was actually working quite well and we held out until the last minute of the first half.
It’s inevitable that if you conceded what was I think the 9th corner, you’re most likely going to concede a goal.
And so it came, with some poor defending. Toure got it and the lead was deserved, albeit somewhat heartbreaking. The difference between 0-1 and 0-0 really is big psychologically, I reckon.
What really disappointed me was the lack of creativity that we demonstrated. Not a shot on target and very little to judge Weimann and Kozak on.
That was no doubt down to the 5 at the back (even though we don’t set up to defend, of course).
One down then and I fully expected City to unleash hell, which would result in the shoeing many of us expected.
But it seems Villa hadn’t read the script and El Ahmedi hit a nice finish to equalise.
Undoubtedly offside, but who cares? we could do with some luck.
It didn’t last long though and Dzeko re-gained the lead for City from another corner, which had me thinking the onslaught would now surely come.
And then Bacuna hit an absolute peach of a free kick, where I suspect the City wall was expecting a screamer from Vlaar. Whatever, I don’t know if that was a deliberate tactic, but it worked nicely.
It really was as good a free kick as I’ve seen in a while and would have had the media wetting themselves had it come from a sky 4 player.
And then, another goal via the unlikeliest scenario.
Guzan punted long, the City defence totally made a mess of it and Weimann flicked it past Hart for the winner.
I was totally shocked, as we don’t do long ball remember, but what the heck, I can forgive the abberation.
Of course, it was all City again after that, but we again held on to get the result.
If I was Pellegrini, I’d have been fuming, as City really didn’t look anywhere near as good as they do on paper.
I’ve said on here a few times that it’s not so much about playing really well that gets you success; it’s more about dragging results out.
As unlikely as it seemed, we quite simply did that today.
I’m sure some of you will have plenty to say about the performance though, as the truth is, I remain totally unconvinced and that Villa teamsheet looks oh so average.
Still, a very handy three points and again I’m a happy bunny.
