Villa fume over ‘farcical decision’ in City defeat

Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan struck late on as Manchester City maintained their title charge with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Aston Villa.

The hosts spurned a succession of great chances amid a relentless downpour at the Etihad Stadium but finally broke through with Silva’s spectacular strike 11 minutes from time.
The Portuguese rattled a powerful left-foot drive into the top corner from the edge of the area to pierce Villa’s admirable resistance.

Gundogan then wrapped up City’s sixth successive Premier League win from the penalty spot in the final minute after a handball by Matty Cash.

In all City racked up 28 attempts at goal and they had numerous other openings on a night when they missed having a specialist centre forward for most of the game.
Yet Villa deserved huge credit for acquitting themselves well on their return to action. Aside from an FA Cup tie in which they fielded a youthful side, it was their first game since New Year’s Day following a Covid-19 outbreak at the club.

They contributed to an entertaining game and had the occasional chance themselves, but it was a tale of their defence versus City’s attack and Pep Guardiola’s men ultimately prevailed.

Speaking to Match Of The Day after the final whistle, Villa manager Dean Smith was not a happy man. “It was a farcical decision for the first goal. I’ve not seen a goal like that given. It needs to be looked at. I don’t think anyone in this stadium thought it was a goal,” he said.

“I thought they would go over to the VAR screen. I saw the incident and saw it was kicking off, so I asked the fourth officials did they get juggling balls for Christmas.
“For the second goal, a header from a yard out that has hit his arm. That’s not handball. Ridiculous.
“It’s been tough but much tougher for other people across the country, so it’s not too hard for my lads to do ten days in isolation when some people have done it for nine months.”