Aston Villa 1-1 Manchester City, Villa Park, 22nd December, 3pm
Manchester City’s dreary away record this season – now standing at a total of 4 points from a possible 24 – continued in the Villa Park gloom. They will have ultimately been glad to leave the Midlands with a point however, as the home side failed to capitalise fully on their overall superiority.
City led early on; through a close-range Rolando Bianchi goal in the 11th minute from an inviting Martin Petrov cross, however Villa levelled soon after – powerful forward John Carew slaloming through the visiting back-line to fire a deflected equaliser past Joe Hart in the City goal. Thereafter Martin O’Neill’s men looked the more likely to grab a winner, but the second half fizzled out into a damp squib, with Villa frustrated at their inability to take one of several chances from set pieces.
Bianchi’s opening goal originated with Didi Hamann’s fine interception in front of his back four; the veteran ex-German international fed playmaker Elano who created space for the effervescent Martin Petrov to fire a low cross past Villa’s Martin Laursen, and Bianchi duly slid the ball under Scott Carson from close-in.
It was beginning to look possible that City could belie their woeful away form, but Carew’s equalising goal just four minutes later put the Manchester side firmly on the back foot for the rest of the half. Carew received the ball from Wilfred Bouma and managed to bustle his way past Richard Dunne to power a deflected right-footed shot home from just inside the area, as he slipped under pressure. Nigel Reo-Coker’s cute through-ball then found Carew in a similar position soon after, but the giant Norwegian couldn’t repeat the trick; his shot charged down by Dunne.
Villa’s Laursen failed to convert two headed opportunities from Ashley Young corners, and Elano cleared off the line from a goalmouth scramble – sending Martin O’Neill and around 40,000 Villa fans into a furious appeal for the award of a second goal, but to no avail. On the half-hour mark, Carew was again set free but his rasping drive was expertly tipped onto the post and wide by young Joe Hart, who then excelled himself again a minute later by bravely diving at Carew’s feet to deny an almost certain goal.
The second half began with ex-Villa star Darius Vassell – so often the nemesis of his former employers in the past few years – heading a rare chance onto the roof of Carson’s net. Both sides’ dead-ball experts – Elano and Shaun Maloney – came up short, having each been presented with a good opportunity to show their prowess; Elano fired a free kick over from an ideal position, while Maloney’s effort was easily saved.
Somewhat subdued by a determined Nigel Reo-Coker performance, Elano was then withdrawn by City boss Sven Goran Eriksson and, shortly after, they wasted their best chance of a scarcely deserved winner – Petrov slicing wide of Carson’s right-hand post from substitute Antonio Garrido’s deep cross with just ten minutes remaining.
There was still time for Villa to spurn a glorious opportunity when Reo-Coker burst clear and unchallenged from the centre circle, but by continuing to delay his pass to a totally free Gabriel Agbonlahor, he allowed Dunne to get a block in. Seconds later Villa were thwarted for a final time by another fine Joe Hart save – from Agbonlahor – on the edge of the City area.
After the game, Martin O’Neill agreed that, for his team, it was a case of “two points lost”. He was, however, full of praise for goalscorer Carew - describing his display as; “phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. He was almost unplayable today.”
Sven was understandably more pleased with the outcome: “We started fantastically...but Villa came on top of us and we did well. We fought and tried to win. In total, we are happy today.”
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