Once again, what should have been a routine victory to seal the Premier League title turned out to be anything but for Manchester City on Sunday as they came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-2 in an unforgettable afternoon at the Etihad.
The opening minutes of the match started on a positive foot, with news circulating around the ground that Wolves had taken an unexpected lead against Liverpool at Anfield to alleviate some of the early pressure on City.
However, it never felt like such a lead would be maintained. Sure enough, after 25 minutes Liverpool were level through Sadio Mane, then 12 minutes later disaster struck for City as Matty Cash latched onto a Lucas Digne cross to put Villa 1-0 in front.
That capped off an underwhelming first half from Pep Guardiola’s men who dominated the ball but managed to register just one shot on target.
Guardiola responded with a half-time substitution, Oleksandr Zinchenko replacing Fernandinho, leading to a pivotal alteration in defence. Zinchenko went into left-back, Joao Cancelo was moved to right-back and John Stones was dropped back into central defence.
That was key because in the first half, City lacked the ability to progress down the right with Stones playing the right-back role. For a defender, he’s one of the best in possession, but he’s still not got a skillset suited to driving into the final third and delivering dangerous balls into the box.
The below positional attacking map captures how little threat City posed down that side of the pitch in the first half.
After the changes though and with two natural wing-backs on either side of the defence, City had much greater balance across the team, making them slicker and more preventative in possession.
They created eight shots in the opening 25 minutes of the second half, and the difference in their positional attacking map in the second half compared to the first is clear as their threat in terms of xG noticeably increased.
A crucial goal still continued to evade them though as big chances created were ultimately wasted. Aware his side needed a more clinical touch, Guardiola turned to Ilkay Gundogan.
"Gundogan is the best inside runner we have. We were arriving down the sides and we needed a player with the sense of tempo in the box and he's the best,” said Guardiola after the game.
Despite Gundogan’s introduction, almost immediately after City’s task became even more challenging as Philippe Coutinho cooly finished past his compatriot Ederson to double the visitors’ advantage.
Six minutes later though City pulled one back, as fellow second-half substitute Raheem Sterling dribbled past Digne before whipping a ball into the penalty area where Gundogan did what his manager said he does best, latching onto the cross to head home.
Just two minutes later, Zinchenko weaved his way through the Villa defence on the opposite side before cutting the ball back to Rodri to superbly fire a low effort past Robin Olsen to set the Etihad into raptures.
The five-minute turnaround was completed by the man of the moment Gundogan who latched onto De Bruyne’s low cross to score the decisive third. Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson made sure Liverpool did all they can, but ultimately City made sure it wasn’t enough.
Had City fallen at this final hurdle, greater scrutiny on Guardiola’s starting lineup may have taken place.
However, it was he who masterminded this unforgettable turnaround for the Blues, creating more final day Eithad history for a team that will be remembered as one of the all-time Premier League greats.
