Aston Villa climb above Man City after shocking 1-0 win

Aston Villa delivered a huge blow to Manchester City’s Premier League title hopes as Leon Bailey scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over the faltering champions on Wednesday.

Bailey’s second-half shot took a deflection and flew past the keeper at Villa Park, lifting Unai Emery’s side to third place above Stuttering City.

Pep Guardiola’s team is in fourth place, six points adrift of leaders Arsenal, after failing to win any of their last four league games.

The treble winners had drawn with Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham and needed to beat Villa to stay close to the Gunners.

But they put up their worst display of the dismal run and were lucky not to lose by a bigger margin.

City looked tired for most of the game and faced a daunting trip to Saudi Arabia for the FIFA Club World Cup before the busy Christmas period, with no time to rest.

When asked this week about City’s slump, Guardiola confidently declared his team would surely retain the Premier League title.

The City manager is not losing his nerve yet, as he remembers how they overcame an eight-point deficit to catch Arsenal in the final weeks of last season’s title race.

But this was a big blow to their ambition of making history with a fourth consecutive Premier League trophy.

Villa’s 14th home league win in a row showed the impressive work done by Emery since he took over from the fired Steven Gerrard last season.

Emery’s team are serious contenders for the top four, and Saturday’s clash with Arsenal gives their manager, who was sacked by the Gunners in 2019, an opportunity to show his former club what they are missing, as they are only four points ahead of them.