By Adam Bate, Skysports.
Matheus Nunes scored a stoppage-time winner for Manchester City to earn a dramatic 2-1 victory over Aston Villa that lifts them up to third in the Premier League table.
It sparked jubilant scenes of celebration inside the Etihad Stadium with Pep Guardiola leading them, his side now well placed to secure Champions League football next season having put an end to their rivals’ five-game winning run in the league.
Bernardo Silva put City ahead early but Marcus Rashford, who had hit the post after 17 seconds, levelled for Villa from the penalty spot following a VAR intervention for a foul by Ruben Dias on Jacob Ramsey. City continued to push and push for the winner.
Nunes found it and his goal means City are now one point ahead of Nottingham Forest in the Champions League spots, with Unai Emery’s Villa still seventh – albeit only four points behind City. The race remains close. But this was a huge moment for City.
Guardiola opted to play Silva alongside Mateo Kovacic in midfield, with Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan ahead of them. The quartet are all over 30 and offer real control in possession, but it does leave City susceptible on the counter-attack – and so it proved.
It was Guardiola’s side who pushed hardest for the winner, James McAtee coming desperately close with a lob over Martinez that angled wide. Though Rashford rounded Stefan Ortega before hitting the side-netting, the pressure did build on Villa.
In the end, it was the introduction of Jeremy Doku as a substitute that proved key, finding space down the left and playing an inviting ball behind the back line that Nunes was on hand to finish. Nunes just being there, playing as a right-back, spoke volumes.
“You cannot imagine City and Guardiola not in the Champions League,” Gary Neville had said beforehand. On a night when it will have felt to many fans inside the stadium that this was on the line, their team had just enough to end Villa’s brilliant run of form.