Manchester City 1 Aston Villa 0: Sven-Goran Eriksson, it is fair to assume, had scarcely heard of Michael Johnson when he accepted Thaksin Shinawatra's bags of gold to become Manchester City's manager but, three months into the job, he is starting to talk about the blond teenager in the sort of glowing terms with which, as England's head coach, he once spoke of Steven Gerrard.

Johnson certainly has similarities with the Liverpool captain and he showed once again yesterday why he is regarded in the City dressing room as an FEC - future England captain.

They are big expectations but Johnson is not short of confidence, a fact that was demonstrated not only by his outstanding display alongside the renascent Dietmar Hamann but by one of his first conversations with Eriksson.

"I congratulated him for playing the last nine games of last season," the Swede recollected after watching Johnson make the decisive contribution to a victory that moves City to second place in the Premier League.

"He said, 'Yeah, I saved us (from relegation).' He's confident, okay."

And with good reason. Johnson not only eclipsed England's man of the moment, Gareth Barry, and the under-21 captain, Nigel Reo-Coker, but underlined why he is now considered a mandatory pick by Eriksson, earning lavish praise in the process.

The 19-year-old is tall, strong and composed on the ball, mature well beyond his years, and has an appreciation of space that is requisite for a top midfielder.

His emergence has been one of the principal reasons why Eriksson is the season's first manager of the month and it was an exquisite goal which settled this contest, bursting forward from midfield and firing a low shot beyond Scott Carson despite the proximity of several defenders.

"He's the all-round midfielder," Eriksson enthused. "Most midfielders have a speciality, whether it's defending, tackling, passing or shooting, but you can't say that about Michael because he can do all of those things, and that is very rare for such a young man. This is a very big talent."

Eriksson was entitled to be grateful for Johnson's contribution because City, in truth, were lucky, and not for the first time this season.

Martin O'Neill, the Aston Villa manager, described himself as "frustrated and disappointed" with his side's display, and there were angry words in the visitors' dressingroom, but the Birmingham club are still entitled to feel they ought to have taken something from the game, particularly after Kasper Schmeichel's erratic goalkeeping.

The suspicion lingers that Schmeichel's luck will eventually run out - and it was perplexing, to say the least, that Sweden's first-choice goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson was not even on the bench - but at least Eriksson did not pretend he was unaware of the Dane's vulnerability when dealing with crosses.

"As long as he keeps getting away with it I'm happy," he said.

"His father was the same because he got away with a lot too. Maybe it runs in the family."

Schmeichel was fortunate that Villa, in O'Neill's words, had an off-day in terms of creating clear-cut chances, and that when Zat Knight headed in Barry's free-kick 17 minutes from the end the referee, Martin Atkinson, ruled it out for a foul on Javier Garrido.

Villa huffed and puffed but lacked the guile to break down a City side in which Stephen Ireland was conspicuous by his absence, dropped as punishment for lying about the "death" of his grandmother to get compassionate leave.

Ireland has been one of City's better performers this season but Johnson ensured the Republic of Ireland international was scarcely missed and his goal oozed class - watched by, among others, Stuart Pearce, the former City manager now in charge of the England under-21s.

Johnson started the move in the centre circle, exchanging short, simple passes with Hamann, and advancing purposefully into the final third of the pitch.

A burst of acceleration took him between Barry and Reo-Coker, and a shimmy to the right saw him evade Martin Laursen. The entire Villa defence had been opened up and he rounded it off with a precise finish in off the post.

O'Neill was not impressed by his side's performance on the back of their superb win over Chelsea in the last round of games before the international break.

"The international break is no excuse, it's the same for every side. After the Chelsea game I wish we had a game the following week, but the big sides can cope with it. We should do better."