I’m not much for moral victories, but Villa put up a spirited fight against visiting Manchester City, falling to defeat by a single goal on the back of a brilliant performance by Brad Guzan. And Villa showed signs that they might not be dead yet.
If it hadn’t been for a bit of first-half stupidity by captain Ciaran Clark, who knows what might have happened. But his decision to try and turn and dribble around Dzeko instead of just clearing the ball proved significant. Carlos Tevez showed a true goalscorer’s class and slotted home decisively for the game’s only goal.
As it was, Villa came out brightly, showed excellent energy, pressed and harried, and played about as hard as they could. Most encouragingly, there seemed to be more quickness to their play, and perhaps it wasn’t surprising they came up empty-handed against the league’s best defense.
Carlos Tevez ended up being the difference at both ends, clearing a powerful Benteke header off the line.
And although Villa didn’t trouble Joe Hart, they certainly played with commitment and belief, and might well have had something for their troubles had Benteke been awarded a penalty in the late going. I’ve seen them given for less.
At any rate, that’s all for me now. We didn’t expect anything, but one-goal losses in consecutive games to Arsenal and the defending champions might just indicate that Villa have enough to stay up.
The next two games may very well be the decisive moments of the season, and a good showing against City can’t hurt confidence at all.
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