Aston Villa placed down a marker on their title ambitions by beating the champions Manchester City 1-0 on Wednesday night.
Leon Bailey’s deflected strike was the only goal of the game for Villa who dominated proceedings throughout and made Pep Guardiola’s side look like a shell of themselves.
It isn’t often that teams make City look extraordinary, but Unai Emery’s troops demonstrated how to nullify City, who weren’t helped by Rodri’s suspension.
Remarkably, the Villains restricted Man City to just two shots across the entire match whilst registering a whopping 22 on goal themselves.
In fact, the 13 shots that the hosts fired at the visitor’s goal was the most ever faced by a Guardiola team in the first half of a match in Europe’s big five leagues, as per OptaJoe.
One man who was instrumental in their sensational play going forward and defensively was midfielder John McGinn.
How did John McGinn perform against Man City?
John McGinn is everything you’d want in a midfielder; a versatile and hard-working player who constantly sets the tone with his press and is reliable at squeezing out of pressure while using his size to hold up the ball.
Against City, the energetic Scotsman demonstrated his ferocity in the press by winning a whopping 14 ground duels – the most of any player on the pitch.
The £120k-a-week star didn’t give the champions a moment piece, putting his body on the line to block two shots and make six tackles.
While he was a crucial cog defensively, his impact by driving from midfield set the tone for a barrage of Villa attacks.
McGinn used his upper body strength and precise ball control to complete all five of his attempted dribbles and also unlocked Guardiola’s back line with five key passes.
The 29-year-old was on a “different level” last night – as dubbed by writer Neil Moxley – and he outperformed the match-winner, Leon Bailey, in the process.
Can Aston Villa win the Premier League title?
Following that sensational victory, Emery’s side moved to within four points of leaders Arsenal, who they host at Villa Park on Saturday.
Although it’s still early in the season, you have to acknowledge the Villans as serious title contenders, especially after putting an exceptional City side to the sword.
The Spaniard is currently orchestrating a remarkable campaign and if they continue to perform at the level they showed against the champions, there’s no reason to suggest Villa can’t be in a similar position come the business end of the season.
