Perhaps the arrival of Bayern Munich to Eastlands on Wednesday will be a blessing in disguise. A second league defeat of the season that was careless and avoidable left Manuel Pellegrini stunned and Manchester City's players with faces like thunder as they marched on to the team bus for the journey home, but bigger games have provided bigger performances so far this year.
Credit must go to Aston Villa for overcoming a 2-1 deficit with two goals in three minutes without their key players Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor, but this game was City's for the taking after their dominant first-half display and having taken the lead twice.
Lackadaisical defending will have alarmed Pellegrini despite Karim El Ahmadi's initial equaliser appearing marginally offside, after Yaya Toure had put City in front. Joe Hart did not even make an attempt to save Leandro Bacuna's fine free-kick, which again reined City in after Edin Dzeko had restored their advantage from a corner, and the winning goal was Sunday league fare.
Woefully disorganised
A long ball forward from Brad Guzan was flicked on by Libor Kozak and Andreas Weimann waltzed past the centre-halves and rounded Hart to finish into an empty net. Vincent Kompany and Matija Nastasic, woefully disorganised during that period, will need to be more alert when Pep Guardiola and co roll into Manchester this week.
"I don't think this result will have an impact [against Bayern]," said Pellegrini. "We know it is a different competition, we know that we must turn the page and think about the Champions League. For me the most important things are the three goals that Aston Villa scored."
Guardian Service