Manchester City were forced to win
Football games without Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne for two months of the season. With their position in the title race at a critcal level after Sunday's bore draw with
Arsenal,
Pep Guardiola deliberately chose to win a game without Haaland and De Bruyne. Aston Villa threatened to frustrate the Blues but were brushed aside 4-1 thanks to a brilliant Phil Foden hat-trick. It feels like everyone has been waiting for a big moment from City in the run-in. It just wasn't this. The aura that City have built up in winning three
Premier League titles in a row and five of the last six has meant that everybody has just assumed they will come good because they have done so often. De Bruyne and Haaland haven't been at their best but when they have clicked - against Luton in the FA Cup, for example - they have been that devastatingly good that it had been assumed the natural order would be restored; cream always rises to the top, right? ALSO READ: Man City player ratings vs Aston Villa and Rodri and Foden star ALSO READ: Why City fan banner criticising season ticket prices was not on display vs Villa Perhaps City were guilty of banking on that for too long, but after struggles to be effective against
Liverpool and Arsenal, and with no more margin for error in the title race, Guardiola shattered all illusions around this season's City side by taking the two biggest names out of the starting lineup. The manager put it down to logistics when asked, citing their upcoming game with Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime as a need to manage minutes; playing at the latest possible time on Wednesday night followed by the earliest possible on Saturday has gone down as badly with Guardiola as you would expect. At the same time, he knew how it would be interpreted after Roy Keane's comments at the weekend and did it anyway. As interesting as the bench was, the starting XI was striking. Julian Alvarez played as a striker for the first time since the end of January, Jack Grealish made just his fourth start of 2024, Jeremy Doku made a rare appearance on the right wing and Bernardo Silva was shunted inside, with Rico Lewis pushing up alongside Rodri and often beyond him. The team started with a freshness, with Alvarez smacking the ball into the side-netting inside 90 seconds after being put through by Grealish. The former Villa man has plenty to prove in the final months of the season and played like it, showing a
fire that hasn't always been directed properly this year. City struck early, Rodri firing home his second-most important goal against Villa after Foden had set Doku free down the right. The conductor of so many City moves celebrated with his teammates after finishing one off before standing in front of the South Stand and calling for even more noise. Too soon, they were silenced though. City played like they felt Alvarez had been fouled near the City box and like John Duran was offside on the counter, and with neither being the case Duran exchanged a simple one-two with former City youngster Morgan Rogers and tucked past Stefan Ortega. It was against very different opposition from Sunday, but with the personnel changes it became very apparent that City had much more fluidity and sharpness in attack without having the killer sense in front of goal that a Belgian and a Norwegian on the bench possess. Different players, different problems. Guardiola has said City will keep plugging away in the title race as they try to topple two teams, and all they can do is keep going. Alvarez had sent one free-kick over the bar from a similar position when Foden stepped up at the end of the first half and saw his effort go through a flimsy Villa wall. It was lucky in the sense that you wouldn't expect Villa to mess up something so simple, yet Foden did the basics right and reaped his rewards. For all the complexities left in this title race, games can turn on the most basic things. Not that the strike turned the match completely, for Villa came out after the break the sharper and Guardiola was left furious at sloppy touches from Foden and Ruben Dias that risked his side's lead. That was the last mistake Foden made though. Just after the hour mark he coolly slotted in his second from the edge of the box after a terrific ball across to find him from Rodri, then shortly after he blasted home from outside the box for his second hat-trick in two months. It is now 21 goals for the season for Foden in all competitions - just eight fewer than Haaland - and 14 in the Premier League. A leading candidate before this game for both City's player of the season and the best in the top flight, this performance will only add to his cause. It was notable that Guardiola hooked both Rodri and Foden before the full-time whistle, giving both some extra rest in their legs before the quick turnaround against Palace on Saturday. For all the aura around De Bruyne and Haaland, City's two undroppables for the run-in are surely their two goalscorers against Aston Villa. That may well raise questions about whether Foden needs to be central to get the best out of him and whether he and De Bruyne can play together, but City are not in a position to be wasting thought on problems that haven't cropped up yet. Instead, they are - still - where they want to be: right in the thick of the title race with just two months to go.