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By TUM BALOGUN and TOM COLLOMOSSE AT VILLA PARK and JACK GAUGHAN AT VILLA PARK Published: 21: 56 AEDT, 21 December 2024 | Updated: 02: 02 AEDT, 22 December 2024 335 View comments Follow Mail Sport's live blog of the Premier League fixture between Aston Villa and Manchester City for the latest team news, live score and updates. By Tum Balogun We are going to leave it there for this afternoon's coverage of Villa's clash against City and it proved to be another miserable experience for the defending champions. We heard Akanji and Guardiola talk about the added preparation time afforded to them because of their exit from the League Cup but that clearly had no impact. They've lost games they play well in, lost games they play badly in and everything in between. We've seen City lose in more ways than I thought possible under Guardiola and is anyone convinced they've hit rock bottom yet? This would certainly provide a fitting case for it. Villa were head and shoulders above their hosts and got their reward for a stunning performance. As for Guardiola's side, well, more unwanted headlines until their next game against - checks notes - Everton. That should be fun! Don't forget to tune into our great coverage on Mail Sport in the meantime. The great day of action has only just begun. By Tum Balogun Morgan Rogers, Aston Villa, TNT Sports: By Tum Balogun By Tum Balogun Youri Tielemans, Aston Villa, TNT Sports: By Tum Balogun Man City have lost 9 games in the last 53 days in all competitions, the last 9 losses before them came in almost 500 days. By Tum Balogun Compare this run to similar ones from their major rivals and you get another view of City's form at the minute. Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal have not lost so many games in such a short period this century. There are more of these, so get ready for an onslaught. By Tum Balogun We have the full-time stats for you courtesy of our friends at Sofscore and they don't make for food reading for City fans. Just look at the momentum bar at the bottom there, City were dominated in the second period when they needed to come out and show a reaction. Their goal right at the end was fortunate and put some gloss on what was a terrible performance and result. By Tum Balogun It's genuinely hard to tell if he's having a go or giving the Belgian some advice on his body position in the 59th minute. Whatever it was, this trend is taking on a more desperate tone. Pep used to do weird stuff to opposition players after a win, now he's getting involved after demoralising defeats. By Tum Balogun By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun There was not enough time for City as they fell to their sixth Premier League loss of the season, their ninth in all competitions. That's one win in TWELVE matches and this one was more definitive than most. Villa dully accepted their Manchester City voucher after a stunning performance against Guardiola's sorry side. By Tum Balogun FODEN GIVES CITY HOPE! I jinxed it - of course I did. Foden scores his first Premier League goal of the season after a scrappy sequence. Is there enough time to salvage a point? By Tum Balogun Feels like City could keep playing for 40 minutes and it wouldn't make a difference. They've been shocking in the second half, truly shocking. Aside from the Feyenoord collapse, this feels the most damning of all the recent matches. By Tum Balogun Rogers sacks up the adulation of the Villa fans as he is replaced by Buendia. He departs after a goal and an assist against his former employers. By Tum Balogun Grealish becomes the latest name in the book after a late tackle on his former team-mate Mc Ginn. That got a hearty round of cheers from the Villa fans. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun Doku comes on for Kovacic. Plan A from the game against Man United is plan B today. By Tum Balogun The Croatian is late with a tackle on Mc Ginn after Grealish's short pass left him stranded. By Tum Balogun Watkins gets his first sighter but Ortega does well to block the fierce drive. Villa carve City open again, with Rogers and Tielemans at the heart of it. The former found Watkins in behind and the Englishman fires on the angle from a tight angle. Could he have taken a touch? Perhaps, but it was well worth the effort. By Tum Balogun Duran's time on the pitch is up. Emery replaces the youngster with Ollie Watkins, who will be chomping at the bit to get a chance against this beleaguered Man City team. By Tum Balogun City have come into it a little bit more in the last couple of minutes. It was hard for them to be much worse. Foden has tried his luck with a couple of efforts from range but Villa don't look perturbed. Guardiola has already made one change and you'd imagine more are going to follow. Druyne is still on the bench, don't forget. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun Savinho joins the action in place of Gundogan as Guardiola seeks an answer to another disaster on his hands. By Tum Balogun By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun It's just what VIlla deserve. It's another superb goal for Emery's side and it showed just how light-weight this City team are. Not in terms of their mentality but the physical difference in the sides is shocking. Rogers brushed off about four City players before finding a team-mate and opening up the chance. Mc Ginn feinted a couple of times before giving him back the ball and he found the corner of the net. By Tum Balogun CITY SURVIVE! It's awful defending from the champions that allows Rogers to have a strike on goal just outside the six-yard area and the former City man should have doubled Villa's lead. The home side looked to have overplayed it before Rogers burst past a couple and survived Gvardiol's shocking attempt at a tackle. By Tum Balogun Good news for City is that Akanji is fine to continue. Bad news is that they looks worse in this second period than before the break. Villa appear to have realised that there's not much threat coming from the visitors. By Tum Balogun OH NO! When it rains it pours! There looks to be even more injury woe for Manchester City here after Akanji comes off the worse in a challenge with Duran. The City defender is holding his right shoulder and the replays indicate that he might have gone over on it after making a superb sliding tackle on the VIlla star. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun Villa have the ball in the back of the net again, and once again Tielemans is responsible for the brilliant move. He picks out Duran, who had strayed beyond Gvardiol and knew he was offside before putting it into the back of the net. By Tum Balogun ANOTHER CHANCE GOES BEGGING! Tielemans is at the heart of it again. His composure opens up the City midfield and leads to another counter. Mc Ginn found Cash coming to the box but the full back chose to shoot on the angle instead of finding Kamara who was free in the middle. By Tum Balogun The youngster is outfoxed by the wily Tielemans, who wriggled past him and then got his body in front as Villa looked to mount another counter. Lewis had no choice but to bring down the former Leicester man and his name joined Martinez and Cash in the book for it. By Tum Balogun John Stones has lasted just 45 minutes on his return to the side. Pep Guardiola was in deep conversation with his players in the tunnel before coming out onto the pitch. It goes without saying - but I'll say it anyway - it's a massive 45 minutes. Kyle Walker comes on for his England team-mate. Villa get the second-half underway at Villa Park. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun Grealish and Martinez could be seen continuing their dialogue as both sets of players went down the tunnel at the break. The former Villa skipper has been at the centre of almost all the drama so far. I know I keep saying it, but this has Grealish winner written all over it today. By Tum Balogun More of the ball, more touches in their opponent's box and even higher expected goals. But City are behind and it's a worrying trend. Only Wolves, Leicester and Southampton have conceded the first goal in Premier League matches this season and that's not the company you want to keep. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun Oooh, there are few tasty scenes as the referee brings the first half to a close. Grealish, Martinez and Haaland are all involved and it looks like the keeper has gone into the book. We'll get some more details on that for you shortly. With respect to the first half, it's more of the same for the champions really. They play alright and control the ball but their massive flaw exposes them every game. In truth, City should be at least two goals down on Villa here, despite all of their good work and that's the issue. Maybe Guardiola was right when he said he wasn't good enough to sort out their problem. By Tum Balogun The announcement of added time comes as Villa waste another counter-attacking opportunity. this time it was Tieleman's pass into Mc Ginn which didn't allow the Villa skipper to take it in his stride. By Tum Balogun CITY SHOULD BE LEVEL! Guardiol, unbelievably the side's second-top scorer, sends a header over the top of the crossbar after more great work down the left from Grealish. The defender had actually started the move with a lung-busting run from his own half. But he wasn't able to keep his header below Martinez's post from about seven yards with the keeper stranded. By Tum Balogun Massive threat on the break from VIlla. The home side have already profited from one of them in this half, while they have squandered about four promising chances when the final ball hasn't been quite right or City's defence has recovered well. It looks like an accident waiting to happen for Pep's team. They're not going to play any differently, especially now they are a goal down. By Tum Balogun You wondered how long Cash could go without committing another foul on Grealish. He lasted about 10 minutes and the referee had no choice but to book him. It makes the rest of the game very exciting as Grealish is the target of most of City's attacks. Emery might have to look at that one at the break. By Tum Balogun WHAT A MOVE! That's more like it from the champions and the reigning PFA Player of the YEAR Phil Foden. The Englishman weaves in and out of a couple of Villa players before exchanging passes with Lewis. He found himself on the edge of the box and curled an effort towards the far corner that was palmed away by Martinez for a corner. By Jack Gaughan At Villa Park By Tum Balogun No space in the middle for the visitors so they're going down the wings and resorting to crosses. Is this Manchester United circa 2013? By Tum Balogun It's still all City in terms of the ball but the Villa defence is holding firm in their rigid shape. The visitors are finding most joy on the flanks with the likes of Bernardo Silva and especially Grealish. The former Villa star has been defended well by Cash but the defender is one foul away from getting booked. We'll see how that battle evolves. By Tum Balogun Looks like Watkins is going to have to get used to that place on the bench. Duran has grabbed his chance to start with both hands and now boasts an extraordinary record in the top flight. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun The normal order of proceedings has resumed but Villa will be even more content to let City have the ball having just shown how devastating they can be when they get it back. Emery's side have had just 22 per cent of possession but they've had five shots on goal. It's a deserved lead based on the quality of chances but City look alright - the only problem is that we've said that a few times in the last five weeks. By Tum Balogun By Tum Balogun And after all of that, Villa lead! Tielemans won't get an assist but he makes the goal with a stunning pass through the lines. City's high line was brutally exposed as Rogers ran through and laid it on a plate for Duran, who slotted it past Ortega. By Tum Balogun Finally some control for Guardiola and his side after that mad start. Grealish continues to test himself against Matty Cash while Kovacic, Gundogan and Foden are starting to get on the ball more. It's good stuff from the visitors. By Tum Balogun Villa were just millimetres from taking the lead after only 19 seconds but for Ortega's incredible intervention. Emi Martinez was credited with the 'best Premier League save of all time' after his stunning stop against Forest. I think I might prefer this one. By Tum Balogun Villa fans are making their feelings towards their former hero Jack Grealish well-known in the opening minutes here. The winger has been City's best player at the start of this game and he looks to be energised by their constant boss. Grealish has gone 35 games for City since his last goal. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends that drought today. By Tum Balogun What a frantic start! City have come into it in the last couple of minutes, with Greaish spearheading their drive. But Villa continue to look dangerous on the break. As Tom said, their frailties are on display for everyone to see here. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun ORTEGA TAKE A BOW! The City keeps makes a stunning save to keep the scores level. A header came into the box and Ortega reacted brilliantly to claw the ball out of the goal. Most of it had crossed the line but not the whole thing. This is some start from the home side. By Tum Balogun OH MY! WHAT A START Villa could have been up inside 20 seconds. Gvardiol was caught on his heels and Duran raced through. A big let up there. Villa corner is incoming. By Tum Balogun And we're underway. City get things off at VIlla Park. By Tum Balogun You'd be well annoyed if you were a Villa fan turning up in a Santa outfit and the man himself arrives to upstage you! Anyway, kick-off is just minutes away and both sets of players are about to come out of the tunnel for the clash. Stay tuned for all the updates in what could be another defining fixture in the season. By Tum Balogun Unai Emery, Aston Villa boss, TNT Sports: By Tum Balogun By Tum Balogun Manuel Akanji, Man City defender, TNT Sports: By Tum Balogun Former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is at Villa Park this afternoon. The Spaniard made time for his compatriot ahead of kick-off. Benitez has faced Guardiola five times in his career, with limited success. Four defeats in that time with his only win coming as Newcastle boss in 2019. By Tum Balogun Who would have thought it? At the beginning of the term, Guardiola's side were given an 86 per cent chance of winning a fifth Premier League title in a row. Now, they're fourth favourites behind Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea and it's not even Christman yet. Only a couple more times I can say that. By Tum Balogun Not long left to go until kick-off at VIlla Park. The players are being put through their paces ahead of the first whistle. By Tum Balogun Pep Guardiola, Man City boss, TNT Sports: By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park Unai Emery, Aston Villa boss, programme notes: By Tum Balogun Pre-match prayer? Maybe he's visualising. Whatever it is, Guardiola knows that this run can't go on for much longer. We've already heard him say that he's not good enough, that his team were fantastic in defeat, that they lost concentration late in games. What else is there left to say if we see the same script from the champions today as in their previous 11? By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun courtesy of Opta By Tum Balogun Shawn Wright-Phillips, Ex-Man City winger, sportscasting. com: By Tum Balogun As I briefly mentioned earlier, it's an exciting day of action in the sporting world. Focussing on the Premier League, we've got three games kick-off at 3pm, including intriguing clashes between Brentford and Forest and West Ham and Brighton. And then later on we will see if Arsenal can claim their second win over Crystal Palace in a week, only this time it's on enemy soil. By Tum Balogun The Villa faithful have given their troops a warm welcome on arrival at the ground for today's game. Villa could find themselves six points adrift of the Champions League places with a defeat today. In a way, it's remarkable they are still so close to it after their patchy recent form. By Tum Balogun It's a regal purple for City stars as they arrive at Villa Park this afternoon. Do you think they know that colour is synonymous with today's opponents? Maybe they're trying to get in their heads early doors. By Tum Balogun Unai Emery, Aston Villa manager, pre-match presser: By Tum Balogun The prodigal's son returns to Villa Park with Manchester City for this afternoon's clash. Grealish has faced his boyhood club three times since his £100million departure in 2021 - I can't believe it's been that long! The Englishman has been on the winning side in each of those matches, though he is yet to register a goal contribution. Very keen to see how he will react today if he manages to get his current team out of their current predicament with a decisive contribution late on. By Tum Balogun Pep Guardiola, Man City boss, pre-match presser: By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun The Manchester City defender is the latest star to be sidelined this term. Guardiola revealed that the Portuguese could be out for up to four weeks in his pre-match press conference. City fans will be delighted to see Stones and Akanji return today but have they been rushed back to cover for their limited numbers in defence? By Jack Gaughan At Villa Park By Tum Balogun It's just one change for Emery from the side that lost to Forest last weekend and it's not up top. That means that Duran keeps his place in the starting line-up and Watkins remains on the bench. There's no Carlos and Onana comes back into the starting roster. By Tum Balogun Changes and more changes from Guardiola for the clash this afternoon. Walker, De Bruyne, while Dias, Ederson and Nunes miss out through injury. In come Stones, Akanji, Ortega and Lewis, who returns from suspension. By Tum Balogun There's another big call to be made today for Unai Emery, who has kept faith with his talisman Ollie Watkins amid his stuttering form. The Englishman has scored just two league goals in his last eight matches. The form of Jhon Duran has not been lost on Watkins and the Colombian is surely nearing a start in his place. Duran started and scored against Forest as Watkins returned from injury but now fully fit, has he merited the place again? Before the team news is announced, take a read of the great piece from Mail Sport's TOM COLLOMOSSE on Watkins and his boss Emery. By Tom Collomosse At Villa Park By Tum Balogun It's a miserable run for Pep Guardiola and his side of late. The defending champions look all but certain to release their grip on the top-flight title for the first time in four years after a stretch of one win in 11 matches. The Manchester derby defeat means City have lost five of their last seven Premier League games, as many as they had in their previous 67 combined. They last lost more in a single league campaign in the 2020-21 season. But can Guardiola find the formula to turn things around? He sensationally claimed after that defeat by United that he is not good enough to do so. At what point do we start to take him and his, let's say, unique, responses seriously? By Tum Balogun Sporting days like this don't come around every week. Crystal Palace welcome Arsenal to Selhurst Park in the late game, Luke Littler makes his world championship bow after that and Usyk and Fury have their rematch in the early hours of the morning. It all starts here at Villa Park, as Manchester City look to find any semblance of form. As you can probably tell, I'm very excited. We have all the action for you on Mail Sport, so make sure you stay tuned for all the drama. Let's kick things off in the Midlands, where we have two sides scratching for consistency. City are coming off that shock 2-1 defeat in the derby to Manchester United, while Villa were soundly beaten by Nottingham Forest last time out. Team news, updates, quotes, pics and then all the news on the pitch when the game gets underway at 12: 30pm. Let's get to it! Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group