Aston Villa keep up winning run to dent Manchester City’s Premier League hopes

Matty Cash ’s first-half fizzer earned Aston Villa an excellent 1-0 win over Manchester City , whose Premier League title hopes took an early blow.

Cash fired home from the edge of the area in the 19th minute and that proved enough for a fourth league win in a row for Villa , who celebrated Unai Emery’s third anniversary in charge in style.

It was a third successive home victory over Pep Guardiola’s side, who fell six points behind leaders Arsenal and face the prospect of another hunt of Mikel Arteta’s side after Christmas.

City were stifled excellently by a perfect Villa gameplan and Erling Haaland was stopped from scoring for just the second time this season in all competitions, ending a 12-game spree.

Such a run of results against Guardiola’s side would not have seemed possible before Emery arrived at Villa Park in October 2022, transforming their fortunes.

And after a slow start to the campaign, they again look like challenging at the top end of the Premier League .

City’s best period of the game came in the opening 10 minutes and they were close to an opener in the sixth minute when Tijjani Reijnders flashed an effort just over from the edge of the area.

But Villa began to take control and the decisive moment of the game arrived in the 19th minute as they went ahead from a set-piece.

They took a short corner to Emiliano Buendia and he crossed the ball to the edge of the area, where Cash collected it before unleashing a low shot across his body that curled into the bottom corner.

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City could have been level three minutes later as Haaland produced an uncharacteristic miss.

Bernardo Silva beat the offside trap and slipped in the Norwegian but his shot was too close to Emiliano Martinez.

That was as good as it got, though, as Villa pushed for a second.

John McGinn might have expected to score when he had time and space on the edge of the box but his shot deflected off John Stones and just wide.

From the resulting corner Ollie Watkins saw a free header blocked.

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McGinn came close early in the second half when he met a corner with a sweet strike but it was blocked.

City upped the ante in search of the equaliser and were denied by some heroic defending on the hour as Ezri Konsa blocked Savinho’s fierce shot and then Pau Torres was in position on the goalline to turn over the Brazilian’s second effort.

Jadon Sancho , on as an early sub for the injured Buendia, had a quiet game but could have doubled the lead in the 69th minute when he had two chances from a narrow angle but both were saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The on-loan Manchester United man was himself subbed soon after as the hosts continued to probe, with the excellent Watkins inches away from being able to get on the end of Ross Barkley’s through-ball.

City threw everything forward in search of an equaliser and thought they had found one it in the 89th minute when Haaland slid in at the far post but Phil Foden was offside in the build-up.