Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City: Pep Guardiola has eight points from a Premier League title

Only Kevin De Bruyne (24) has been directly involved in more goals in all Manchester City competitions this season than Phil Foden (23 – 14 goals, nine assists)

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said the failed European Super League (ESL) was a “closed chapter” after his team beat Aston Villa to get closer to becoming Premier League champions.

City were one of 12 clubs to apply for a split ESL on Sunday, but withdrew on Tuesday after widespread criticism of the proposal, which would have no advancement or relegation and division of English football.

“As a club we accept and learn and focus on the reason why we are here,” said Guardiola, whose team needs eight points from five matches to become the English champions for the third time in four seasons.

“It’s a chapter that’s over, a closed chapter. They [the owners] you don’t need to apologize [to me], I know them, I know how they are. “

City’s win leaves them 11 points behind Manchester United, and Guardiola said his team is “so close” to the title.

However, they were scared when midfielder John Stones was ruled out just before the break due to Jacob Ramsey’s knee-deep challenge.

But Villa wasted a man’s advantage when Matty Cash was fired 11 minutes into the second half after two cards three minutes apart.

The hosts took the lead earlier after just 20 seconds as John McGinn took the lead next to Ederson after a low pass from Ollie Watkins.

Impressive Phil Foden finished a fine move by the city team to equalize before Rodri headed to the top of what proved to be the winner after Bernard Silva’s cross.

City led 2-1 when they came down to 10 men, but Villa couldn’t take advantage of the extra player and then posed a small threat when he was 10-a-side.

Bad day for the Stones, but his red doesn’t cost City

‘We’re so close to the title’ – Guardiola in Man City’s win over Aston VillaThe Stones have been in good form this season, making more appearances in the Premier League than they managed in 2019-20.However, with Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate in the stands, it was an evening to forget for the 26-year-old.They caught him in the first few seconds of the match when he failed to collect a long ball from English teammate Tyrone Mings, allowing Watkins to set McGinn for the team’s fastest goal in the Premier League this season.The Stones were then shown a flat red card for an unseen challenge on Ramsey near half the line and in front of two dugouts.After checking the video of assistant referee Jarred Gillett, field referee Peter Banks followed the incident on a monitor near the field and showed a red card to the Stones, although Guardiola was dissatisfied with the decision and expressed objections to officials.The Stones will be suspended for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Tottenham at Wembley as City, who are also in the Champions League semi-finals, aim to win the first of three potential trophies this season.With a male advantage, Villa’s Douglas Luiz swerved 25 yards straight to Ederson, but the match came back in City’s favor after two Cash challenges at Foden, the second of which was a sliding challenge that wiped out the England midfielder near the touch line. .Since then City have been able to dominate possession and now need just three more league wins to become England champions for the seventh time in their history.Foden shines as football returns to normalThe continuation of the match at Villa Park was dominated by talks about the European Super League.City was one of six English teams – along with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham – that were joined by three sides from Spain and three from Italy in the proposed new closed competition.However, Sunday’s announcement brought widespread criticism and anger from fans, managers, other clubs and politicians, and Guardiola himself said football is “not a sport if success is guaranteed or if it doesn’t matter when you lose”.City were among the first to announce their withdrawal from the ESL on Tuesday night and there was no repeat of protests that saw angry fans demonstrating before Liverpool’s game in Leeds on Monday, Chelsea’s home game against Brighton on Tuesday and Tottenham’s match with Southampton earlier on Wednesday.It was a game that once again highlighted the exciting and thrilling nature of the Premier League, and City’s game after scoring a goal was a pleasure to watch.Their equalizer began with goalkeeper Ederson dunking a fine 50-meter ball to the left wing where Olexandr Zinchenko played it to the great Foden. The 20-year-old drilled a low pass for Riyad Mahrez, and the Algerian let the folded Silva to the right flank, and his retreat was directed by Foden into the net.The second goal was another well done, as Rodri scored strongly from Silva’s second assist.City not only scored the most goals in the Premier League, but also has the best defensive record and successfully managed to stifle Villa in the second half to make a big step towards a second title.After the match, Mayor Pep Guardiola said of Foden: “This guy is growing. His influence in our games is huge. He is becoming a serious player.“Phil is becoming such an important player right now. His influence in the last third is so important.”‘They educated us’ – what they saidAston Villa boss Dean Smith, speaking for the BBC Match of the Day: “We got off to a great start. It was something we talked about. We have one of the best players in the league who can run behind the opposition defense in the form of Ollie Watkins.“We defended relatively well. Probably the way the conversations they received us was most disappointing. Cashy will learn from that. Others [booking] was stupid and reckless.“Some of Manchester City’s performances were outstanding. Sometimes they educated us.“I’ve been playing professional football for 34 years and I haven’t seen football come together like this week. It shows you how outraged people were at [ESL] plans. “

Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester City: Pep Guardiola has eight points...

Bad day for the Stones, but his red doesn’t cost City