Man City vs Aston Villa

MBM report: Manchester City end a bruising week by welcoming Aston Villa to the Etihad. Join Rob Smyth for updates.

It’s been a long time because he was injured after the World Cup and it wasn’t easy to recover. He opens his body to slide a left-footed shot that hits the outstretched right leg of Martinez and goes just wide of the far post. Rodri plays a one-two with De Bruyne, marches through midfield and eases a through ball into the path of Gundogan. Unai Emery makes one change for the Villa side that was plugged 4-2 at home to Leicester last weekend. “How else would fans react to the anthem of a league that told the press about these charges before the club? 6 min “I see from the picture that Mr. De Bruyne drove the corner flat and hard to Grealish, lurking on the edge of the area at the far post. De Bruyne gets to the byline and tries to cut the ball back to Haaland. 27 min De Bruyne’s deep free-kick is headed into a dangerous area by the backpedalling Ramsey. Mahrez’s outswinging corner brushes the head of Dias at the near post and ricochets around the area until Haaland volleys over from six yards. The referee allows play to continue, and replays show that, while it was a very strong challenge, it wasn’t a dangerous one. 30 min Rodri, who has been outstanding, releases De Bruyne on the right with a lovely first-time pass.

Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, and Riyad Mahrez all scored as Manchester City opened the door to the Premier League throne room with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa.

All of the focus will be on Arsenal and how they respond to that home defeat, their first of the season, to Manchester City. With the first real attack of the game Villa lead. What a first half at Villa Park. HALF TIME: Aston Villa 2-1 Arsenal. Arsenal cranking up the pressure now. So close to a stunning goal for Villa as Bailey did so well to control, run and spank an effort at goal. In the first half we did the simple things wrong and in the second half we raised our individual level and did the simple things right. 3 of Casemiro’s three-game suspension for the red card he received in the Man United victory over Crystal Palace two weeks ago, with the Red Devils just a win away from taking 7 of 9 points during the Brazilian’s ban — not small feat given his considerable impact since arriving from Real Madrid in the summer. Manchester United have lost just once (to Arsenal) in their last 10 Premier League games (7W-2D-1L), and they have Marcus Rashford’s red-hot form to thank for that. The Hammers have a bit of momentum amid a three-game unbeaten run (victory over Everton, followed by back-to-back draws with Newcastle and Chelsea), though they are winless in their last four trips to north London (0W-1D-3L). West Ham (20 points – 18th place), meanwhile, find themselves in the relegation zone after winning just one of their last 10 PL games (1W-3D-6L). Unai Emery’s Villa was well-prepared and it just didn’t matter in the long run.