Manuel Pellegrini's men had the perfect opportunity to leapfrog local rivals Manchester United into third place with a home victory against FA Cup finalists Aston Villa on Saturday evening, as Louis van Gaal's side travel to Merseyside in Sunday's encounter. It was not going to be easy, especially given Tim Sherwood's rejuvuation for the Villains in the past few months.
A minute of silence was observed before the first-half began, for the victims of the Bradford fire, thirty years ago. It seemed awfully quiet inside a far-from-packed Ethiad Stadium but the hosts roared into life after just three minutes, when a catastrophic error from American goalkeeper Brad Guzan gifted the Premier League's leading goalscorer Sergio Agüero a perfect opportunity to break the deadlock from close range, which he took with a cooly slotted shot from a few yards out.
Ron Vlaar attempted a backpass towards the goalkeeper's feet, he struggled to get a solid contact with the ball and it bobbled off his foot straight into the path of the Argentine, who made no mistake to complete his 21st league goal of the 2014-15 campaign.
Jesus Navas and Yaya Touré came close with attempts on-goal on separate occasions within minutes of Aguero's opener, as Villa looked vulnerable to conceding on the counter attack.
Carlos Sanchez made a last-gasp sliding challenge, and a clean one too, to deny Aguero from driving forward near the edge of the area in the tenth minute, as Pellegrini's side looked hungry for more goals. Guzan looked understandably shaky in the early going after his unfortunate mistake, with the City fans ironically cheering every time he got on the ball, or looked hesitant to make a decision.
Jack Grealish asked the question of the City defenders with his curling corner-kick deliveries, his first was headed away by Eliaqium Mangala and his second was headed over the crossbar by Belgian striker Christian Benteke, eager to score for what would have been his fifth consecutive game.
Another defensive mistake almost resulted in City's second, this time from Leandro Bacuna, whose first-touch was poor and allowed Aguero to speed past him into the area, but luckily enough for the make-shift full-back, the visitors got defensive markers back in time to delay his effort, which was eventually passed across to Navas, blocked, and then cleared to safety.
Joe Hart made a great stop to deny Benteke from close range, as City failed to initially clear their lines. A wake-up call for the hosts, who were perhaps slightly overconfident given their dominant start in the first 20-25 minutes, as Aston Villa were struggling to make any clear-cut chances up until then.
Grealish was at the heart of proceedings after this opportunity, as he dribbled through midfield and unselfishly squared the ball towards midfield team-mate Tom Cleverley, whose shot fizzed off the turf and hit the advertising boards behind Hart's goal, as he was off-balance whilst taking the strike.
Benteke saw another header fly over Hart's crossbar, as Sherwood's men were gradually beginning to get themselves back into the match. They were still one-goal behind, but the match was far from over, despite a rather drab battle for possession in midfield towards the end of the first-half.
Fabian Delph curled a dangerous ball towards the box on the stroke of half-time, but thankfully for the hosts, the linesman had his flag up for an offside call on the far side, as Grealish shaped to shoot after a team-mate's attempted header was missed, and City struggled to clear. The fourth official signalled for just a minute of stoppage time to be added on, and the score stayed 1-0 to the hosts at the break.
As the second-half began, Touré was replaced by Fernandinho in a like-for-like change in midfield, following the Ivorian's knock picked up towards the end of the first 45. Aguero came close to having another effort on-goal early on, but was charged down effectively by the Villa defenders who quelled the attacking threat for the time-being, before Silva was the first player in the referee's book for a late tackle on Delph.
In the 52nd minute, City were denied a clear penalty-kick decision by the referee, who was not watching the incident inside the box, instead watching the ball as it was driven towards the area. Aguero was held back by Bacuna off-the-ball, as the Dutchman cynically blocked his attempts to run onto the ball in the box, knowing the danger the Argentine poses.
The English central midfielder came close to equalising in the 54th minute at the end of a well-worked team opportunity, as a long ball forward was headed down by Benteke into the path of Grealish. The 19-year-old flicked the ball towards Delph, who had a low strike swerve just wide of Hart's far post as City blew a collective sigh of relief.
James Milner replaced a rather quiet Frank Lampard in the 57th minute, for the Citzen's second sub of the game. The hosts continued to probe for the second goal, a killer in the match, as Navas showed quick feet to dance past two Villa players on the flank before passing across to Aguero, who fed Milner, with the English versatile man's cross emphatically hoofed clear by Dutch centre-back Ron Vlaar, who was not taking any chances.
Sanchez was brandished his sixth yellow card of the season after a late sliding challenge on Fernandinho, 25 yards out, just moments after Silva was denied a dubious penalty-kick decision after a robust sliding lunge from Jores Okore as the referee waved play on. The free-kick was lined up between Milner and Aleksandar Kolarov, with the latter curling a well-placed strike beyond Guzan into the back of the net, to double the scoring. Replays showed that the wall virtually fell apart, and the experienced Serbian took advantage of this, with a neat finish to make it 2-0.
Then, just a minute or two later, Villa suddenly found themselves back in the game. A free-kick from the flank was poorly dealt with by the City defenders in the area as Hart rushed out in an attempt to punch clear, and Cleverley pounced on the loose ball from range to smash home past the England number one, making it 2-1.
Hart had to be quick to react again, this time making a good stop to deny Delph's effort at his near post - he spread his legs and made himself big, closing down the goal-scoring angles as the ball was parried away to safety in the end. The momentum was well and truly with Villa now, and Bacuna's ambitious ball into the box was inches away from Benteke, who knew exactly how close he was to having another one-on-one opportunity with Hart.
As the clock ticked into the 80th minute, Villa were dominating posession as they pressed for a late equaliser. Wilfried Bony made his return from injury with a short ten minute cameo spell, replacing goalscorer Aguero, but the visitors continued to pressurise in City's half. They were the better side in the second-half, and got their deserved reward with five minutes to play, as a corner was drilled into the box by Charles N'Zogbia and City struggled to clear their lines once more, allowing Sanchez the time and space to tuck a well-placed half-volley into the net from inside the box.
That was not the end of the action though, as a corner was fired across the box and Fernandinho reacted quickly to fire home from close range, volleying the ball in-between Guzan's legs into the corner of the net. The Citzens fans went wild with a mixture of relief and jubilation, as they were worried they may have had to settle with a point in the end.
The fourth official signalled for four minutes of stoppage time, for Sherwood's men to somehow find another equaliser, having done the hard work already to get back into the match, before cruelly being taken away from them. Villa continued to press, but the referee eventually blew his whistle to signal the end of the match, and that was it. Guzan's mistake in the first-half, cost Sherwood's men a point, against the defending champions.
Villa fail to move further above the relegation zone after Hull and Leicester won their respective fixtures earlier today in the Premier League, they stay 15th. City meanwhile, move into second place, nine points behind the Blues, having played two games more than the league leaders as well as third placed Arsenal.
Player Ratings:
| Manchester City (3) | Aston Villa (2) | ||
 | .jpg) |  |  |
| Hart | 5 | Guzan | 5 |
| Zabaleta | 6 | Bacuna | 6 |
| Demichelis | 6 | Okore | 5.5 |
| Mangala | 6 | Vlaar | 6 |
| Kolarov MOTM | 8.5 | Richardson | 6 |
| Fernando | 5 | Sanchez | 7.5 |
| Lampard | 5 | Westwood | 5 |
| Navas | 6 | Cleverley | 6 |
| Touré | 6 | Delph | 6 |
| Silva | 7 | Grealish | 7.5 |
| Agüero | 7.5 | Benteke | 7 |
| Substitutes: | |||
| Fernandinho | 7 | N'Zogbia | 6 |
| Milner | 6 | Lowton | - |