English FA Premiership/ Aston Villa 1; Manchester City 1: Given that Kevin Keegan is a fan of entertaining football, he did well to miss this match. The Manchester City manager was absent because of a bad back and events on the pitch showed he also has a pretty bad side.
City were no worse than Aston Villa and deserved a point, but they are far from out of trouble and did not look too good to go down.
Sylvain Distin's header inched the club a little closer to safety but for the most part they mirrored their disappointing opponents in being ordinary, error-prone and uninspired. Though City created the better chances, that was not saying a lot.
They could at least take more comfort from a draw than Villa, whose hopes of qualifying for Europe suffered a setback.
City will reflect that this game had been there for the taking, and hardly seemed to help themselves with their starting XI. They looked more menacing after introducing Nicolas Anelka and Robbie Fowler for Jonathan Macken and the insipid Paulo Wanchope. The impact was not instant but there was more quality with that pair on. Anelka twice might have scored and Fowler had a shot saved.
It was tempting to think only pride prevented Arthur Cox, Keegan's assistant, from bringing off at least Wanchope before the 67th minute. Macken sometimes linked play and had three efforts on goal but it summed up Wanchope's afternoon that he was let down by poor chest control when given a decent opportunity from a cross by Michael Tarnat.
Cox justified the selection by saying Macken and Wanchope had finished the previous game well, and gave City a chance to be more direct with their strength in the air. It was put to him that the team looked better with Anelka and Fowler, who have scored 31 goals this season between them. "That's near the end of the game," he said, suggesting Villa tiredness had been a factor.
Keegan is due back tomorrow or the following day to oversee the final stretch of the season. City face only one team higher than ninth and need to make that count. They are only four points ahead of Leicester, who occupy the final relegation place and take on Leeds tonight.
There was little to admire from City outside a bright opening and lively finish. The only sources of creativity were Shaun Wright-Phillips and Tarnat. Claudio Reyna did his job decently but Steve McManaman had a poor game.
City did create a few openings, with Olof Mellberg three times intervening for Villa in the first hour, once to redeem his own error. Villa managed only one period of sustained threat which included Juan Pablo Angel exploiting poor marking to head in Thomas Hitzlsperger's corner.
Generally Villa passed badly, too often resorted to long balls and showed a surprising lack of urgency to add a second goal after the interval. Angel, having returned from international duty with Colombia on Friday night, departed tired at half-time.
There were boos from some home supporters at the end. Villa have now taken two points from their past three home games. Their faint hopes of finishing fourth have surely gone and they will have to perform a lot better to end up fifth and get into the UEFA Cup.
Guardian Service
