Rogers stars as Villa beat Man City to leave champions SIXTH

Morgan Rogers scored one goal and assisted another as Aston Villa got back to winning ways with a 2-1 victory over Manchester City in the Premier League on Saturday.

Rogers, formerly of Man City, made sure of the three points against Pep Guardiola’s out-of-form side at Villa Park in the 65th minute, slotting in from just inside the box after an impressive run.

The 21-year-old had set up Villa’s first-half opener, unselfishly teeing up Jhon Duran, who netted for a third consecutive Premier League game.

After struggling to pose a threat for much of the match, City got a stoppage-time consolation goal through Phil Foden. But it was not enough to prevent a ninth defeat in 12 games in all competitions.

Unai Emery’s side leapfrog City into fifth, only outside the top four on goal difference, with the Citizens now nine points behind leaders Liverpool as their title defence slips further out of their hands.

How the match unfolded

Villa started with intent, John McGinn picking Josko Gvardiol’s pocket to tee up Duran inside the opening 20 seconds, but Stefan Ortega tipped the Colombian’s long-range strike wide.

The goalkeeper sensationally denied them from the resulting corner too, tipping Pau Torres’ header onto the crossbar after clawing it off the line just in time.

But Villa did eventually find a first-half breakthrough straight through the middle of City, with Rogers teeing up Duran to fire home first time.

Duran beat Ortega one-v-one six minutes after the break, only to be denied by the offside flag, but shortly after the hour mark, Rogers picked up the ball deep in his own half and brushed off City’s midfield to play a one-two with McGinn before slotting it into the far bottom corner.

In stoppage time, Savinho’s weaving run opened the space for Foden, who got a bit of fortune as the ball ricocheted back to him, and calmly slotted in his first league goal of the campaign.

Rogers steals the show

While a lot has been made of City’s slump, Villa’s form has also been up-and-down in recent weeks, having given up two late goals in their defeat to Nottingham Forest last weekend.

However, their intent to make their opponents uncomfortable was clear from the first whistle as McGinn’s pressure on Gvardiol in the opening seconds almost led to the first breakthrough.

Another midfielder in Youri Tielemans, who was making his 200th Premier League appearance, made the first goal possible as he received the pass from Emiliano Martinez while under pressure from Mateo Kovacic, but he kept his cool to brush off the Croatian and pick out Rogers.

It was Rogers who was the star of the show. Having provided the assist for the first goal, he showed incredible strength after picking the ball up in the left-back position and then got the better of Kyle Walker to find space for the shot that led to the second goal.

He could have had a second assist late on too as he once again drifted through City’s midfield with little resistance, though Ollie Watkins’ shot was smothered by Ortega.

City’s problems go on

Guardiola was downbeat after City’s late defeat to Manchester United last weekend, but was back up for the challenge of turning their fortunes around ahead of their trip to Villa Park.

Even with more defensive injury worries piling up – both Ederson and Ruben Dias were missing for the champions – City’s backline looked capable. But the ease with which Villa opened them up in the 16th minute will be a worry to Guardiola, as it took the hosts just two passes to get from Martinez to Rogers in the final third.

City did up the pressure after going behind, with their best chance falling to Foden in the first half after playing a clever one-two with Rico Lewis, but Martinez stretched to tip it wide of the post.

Their attacking play was disjointed for most of the game. Erling Haaland endured another quiet game with little service, while Jack Grealish’s threat from the first half did not carry into the second. They will be boosted by Foden getting off the mark in the league, but it is a crumb of comfort.

Guardiola will potentially think himself fortunate that the match only ended 2-0 given the chances Villa had, but he desperately needs solutions before they face Everton on Boxing Day.

Club reports

Villa report | Man City report

What the managers said

Unai Emery: “Always we are trying to be positive, in some matches we are maybe not performing as we want, but today we perform. We are feeling strong, here we played the first half very well, in the second half we kept possession more and getting in the box to score the second goal, we imposed and dominated more.”

Pep Guardiola:  “We make a really good first half, second half we dropped. We changed our pressing for the reason John [Stones] could not continue. Congratulations Aston Villa and keep going.”

Next PL fixtures

Key facts

Aston Villa have won consecutive home league games against Manchester City for the first time since April 1993, as many victories as they managed against the Citizens in their previous 11 such matches (D3 L6).

Jhon Durán scored his seventh Premier League goal of the season; only Jamal Musiala (9) has netted more goals in the big-five European leagues in 2024-25 among players aged 21 or under.

Morgan Rogers both scored and assisted in a Premier League game for the first time; he’s the fourth Aston Villa player to do so against Man City in the competition, after Leandro Bacuna (Sep 2013), Paul Merson (Mar 2001) and David Ginola (Dec 2000).

Manchester City are winless in five consecutive Premier League away games (D1 L4) for the first time under Pep Guardiola, last failing to win more consecutive such matches in December 2015 (6) under Manuel Pellegrini.

(EPL)