Premier League: Leon Bailey's Goal Sends Aston Villa Through As Manchester City Stumbled

Aston Villa have dealt a huge blow to Manchester City's title pursuit after defeating the Premier League title defenders by 1-0 at Villa Park. 

Youri Tielemans' pass set off Leon Bailey for the chance to break in running half field on the ball and made enough room before steering a right-foot shot to beat Ederson to the goal and that sent City trailing. 

Villa nearly doubled the lead from Douglas Luiz's curly shot that caught the woodwork and bound off to safety. That would have been wrecker for City with two minutes remaining. 

The loss extended City's league game winless run to four and have dropped to fourth position on 30 points behind Villa who moved up to third. 

Quick Overview

The hard-fought match saw a Villa well composed for much of the first half that did not allowed City the space to run around and forced them to play deep into their own halve in the late stages. City on the other hands, maintained a good defensive composure keeping Villa from breaking freely into the box. 

Even at that, Villa yet broke in on the stroke of halftime as Lucas Digne's cross flicked over for Luiz's header but the goal ruled out for having gome out of touch. Earlier to that, Haaland in a set piece forced Martinez saves parring his shot and rebound header to keep Villa in the game. 

It was just a matter of time that Villa would move ahead and Bailey found the space through the centre to run through. Villa had kept City in the back foot and having to take the lead could not be surprising. 

Unai Emery's game plan was really an excellent one that caught City helplessly for much of the second half. In terms of possession, Villa had the best of it and played with great confidence.