English FA Premiership/Manchester City 3 Aston Villa 1: How times change. When Kevin Keegan could be found patrolling the technical area, a gloating Alex Ferguson quipped that the City of Manchester Stadium should be renamed the Temple of Doom.
Fast-forward a year and City have now won four home games compared with United's one and are squatting defiantly in the Champions League places, peering down on Ferguson's malfunctioning team in seventh position. Temporarily at least, the melancholy is at Old Trafford rather than Eastlands.
One thing that stays the same is Aston Villa's floundering, just two points above the relegation places and soundly beaten here despite a brief second-half revival via Liam Ridgewell's first goal for the club - a rally that was well and truly killed off by Andy Cole's late goal.
To make matters worse for David O'Leary's team, the damage was inflicted upon them by one of their own, the former Holte End favourite Darius Vassell, who scored both City goals inside the opening 26 minutes.
Vassell now has five goals in 12 appearances since heading up the M6 in a £2-million summer move, but on a night of real satisfaction for the one-time England striker he could never have imagined getting so much help from his former colleagues.
In its three-year existence this venue has seen Richard Dunne own-goals and David James as a makeshift centre forward, but nothing like when, with only three minutes gone, Villa's goalkeeper Stuart Taylor and JLloyd Samuel combined to present Vassell with his first goal.
Taylor, a summer arrival from Arsenal, knew he was playing only a few minutes before kick-off, Thomas Sorensen having injured himself in the warm-up. What goes through a goalkeeper's mind in those moments? Get a safe first touch of the ball. Make an impression.
Taylor certainly did that as he raced from his goal-line to the edge of the penalty area, expecting Samuel to nod a high bouncing ball to him.
With Vassell chasing him down, the wiser option for Samuel would have been to clear the danger, but he was caught in two minds. The Villa left back succeeded only in heading the ball past Taylor, hopelessly out of position, and Vassell was left with the simple task of tapping in.
Vassell at least had the decency not to celebrate in front of the Villa fans and he remembered his manners again when Cole swivelled past Ridgewell's feeble challenge and dinked a little up-and-under into his path.
Vassell struck his shot first-time, a diagonal right-foot volley just inside the far post. City were rampant at this point, with youngsters such as Lee Croft and Stephen Ireland aiding and abetting the wily Cole-Vassell partnership.
Villa's fans responded with ironic cheers when Samuel was withdrawn at half-time and there was a notable improvement in the second half, even if Olof Mellberg was fortunate to be given the benefit of the doubt after bringing down Barton inside the penalty area.
That reprieve was followed by Villa's first period of pressure and on 65 minutes they reignited the contest. Patrick Berger swung over a left-wing cross and the ball was bundled in by Ridgewell. Some nervous moments ensued for City, but Villa's challenge petered out and it was game over when Cole's left-foot shot from just inside the area went in after taking a deflection off Ridgewell.
MANCHESTER CITY: James, Mills, Sommeil (Jihai 45), Distin, Jordan, Croft (Sibierski 69), Barton, Ireland, Musampa, Cole (Wright-Phillips 85), Vassell. Subs not used: Richards, De Vlieger. Booked: Barton. Goals: Vassell 4, 26, Cole 83.
ASTON VILLA: Taylor, Delaney, Mellberg, Ridgewell, Samuel (Berger 45), Milner, Davis, McCann, Barry, Phillips, Moore (Bakke 71), Berger (Djemba-Djemba 75). Subs not used: Sorensen, De la Cruz. Booked: Samuel. Goals: Ridgewell 65.
Referee: D Gallagher (Oxfordshire).
