The Blues bossed the game throughout, recording 27 shots on the Villa goal before Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero bagged goals in the last eight minutes to give Manuel Pellegrini’s men recorded back-to-back wins on the road.
As the old cliché goes, these are the games teams with aspirations to win the title have to win – or something along those lines – and it was at this ground last season that City dominated large portions of the game only to somehow lose 3-2.
The first-half in this game bore similarities to that game, with City almost totally dominant from start to finish, but with no reward to show at the end
...Villa 0 City 2...
The first real opportunity was when Aleks Kolarov lashed in a trademark left-footed howitzer that cannoned off the outside of the post on 10 minutes as the Blues sought an early foothold in the game and, in turn, perhaps a release from the hosts high press tactics.
Villa had managed just nine shots on target in their opening six Premier League fixtures and it didn’t take long to understand why.
Happy to sit back in numbers and let City attack, only once did the alarm bells really wing as a right-flank cross almost found the foot of Andrea Weimann before being gobbled up by Joe Hart, bit other than that and a long range effort Charles N’Zogbia, Paul Lambert’s side offered little.
By contrast, the Blues went into the break having had 12 attempts at goal. Aguero and Edin Dzeko had no luck as they were often crowded out by the home defence, though Aguero’s flicked header from Kolarov’s cross went only a foot or so wide.
City ended the first period totally dominant with Kolarov, Dzeko and James Milner all going close and it seemed just a matter of time before he champions struck – but the teams resumed after the break with the score still deadlocked.
Within moments of the re-start, there was yet more head-scratching from the visiting fans as Milner put Aguero clear only to see the Argentine beat Brad Guzan but strike the foot of the post – though from the ensuing clearance and Villa counter-attack, Hart was forced into a fine save from Kieran Richardson.
A frantic five minutes was ended by a fine Guzan save as the Villa keeper smartly dived to his right to keep out David Silva’s spin and low shot – surely it wasn’t going to be one of ‘those’ days?
It seemed it might be as Silva again went close, arriving Lampard-style right on cue to slide Milner’s low cross inches past the post – then Eliaquim Mangala thundered a header straight at Guzan from a Kolarov corner as the frustration began to grow
...Villa 0 City 2...
It needed something out of the ordinary to break down a resolute home defence or perhaps occasionally the need to be a little more direct as the champions’ patient build-up play was at times playing into the hosts’ hands.
Then, at last, the break-through.
After another City attack had been foiled, the ball came out to Yaya Toure, the powerful Ivorian strode forward unchallenged before unleashing a left-foot drive from 15 yards that finally beat Guzan. Cue relief all round but it had been coming for a long time.
It was thoroughly deserved, too, and with 82 minutes played, it looked as though that was that – but six minutes later Aguero’s fierce drive from the edge of the box rasped into the bottom corner to give the victory a far more realistic look.
If these are the games potential champions are meant to win, the current champions look in great shape.
