"A point that will probably feel as good as three for the under siege Aston Villa manager". Steven Gerrard will certainly breathe a sigh of relief as his team delivered for him when he needed it most. Pressure was starting to mount on the manager, with many calls for him to be sacked from his own fans. 

It was expected that Manchester City would pick up where they left off last week and go on another goal-scoring rampage. However, Gerrard's  side put in their best performance of the season as Leon Bailey's powerful strike cancelled out Erling Haaland's tap in to grind out a crucial point. A point that will feel extremely valuable to Gerrard's future.

They were perhaps unlucky not to nick all three with Philippe Coutinho's thunderous strike wrongfully disallowed for offside.

Villa executed their game plan to perfection and were disciplined throughout.  They showed great resilience to bring themselves level, with City winning 31 of the 33 games they have gone 1-0 up in.

"We got the big moments right today and this performance was about the team, guts". We had blood and thunder in abundance today", said Gerrard.

It has been claimed that the manager has struggled to get the best out of his players, with them not reaching their full potential. Nonetheless, all 11 players played out of their skin and looked revitalised.

Ezri Konsa and Tyrone Mings formed a formidable partnership to keep Man City's attacking threat at bay through a series of crucial interceptions, blocks and last ditch tackles.

Ashley Young was exceptional when he entered the field in place of the injured Matty Cash. He gave Phil Foden no joy and won 100% of his tackles, 100% of his aerial duels and won 5/6 of his ground duels.

Gerrard was delighted with Young's display, with him stating that the veteran "epitomised" Villa's display. Gerrard said:

"I thought his performance epitomised everything about us today, he drove a lot of our players on when he came onto the pitch. He was magnificent".

Douglas Luiz and Boubacar Kamara did well to sustain City's pressure and shut down multiple attacks through their excellent awareness and positioning. 

Jacob Ramsey looked to be back to his brilliant best playing slightly more advanced. His late runs into the box caused all sorts of trouble. Ramsey provided the assist for Bailey which sent Villa Park into delirium. After a slow start to the season, last years Aston Villa player of the year looks like himself again.

  • Tactical flexibility 

Gerrard took a pragmatic approach to the game, making big changes to his usual game plan which clearly paid off. Being flexible with his team selection and having a different dynamic looks to be a trait which he has now unlocked, showing signs of progress as a manager.

He opted to leave his star attackers Coutinho and Emi Buendia on the bench, sacrificing them for players that would carry a greater threat on the counter attack and would help Villa become more compact.

Explaining his approach to  Sky Sports after the game Gerrard said:

"Sometimes you've got to put more legs in the team, you've got to sacrifice certain technical levels when you're up against City, you've got take a bit of space away and you've got to have people in your team that will help you regain the ball and run forward with power and speed"

"Buendia and Phil are different types of players so we went with Ramsey, Bailey and Ollie because we felt that we would have areas of the pitch to go and break in"

"That was the reason why we took a few technical players out, we wanted to be a little bit more pragmatic, organised, we wanted to take a little bit more space away behind us because of Haaland and other players that are capable so that was the reason behind it".

With a winnable game next week against strugglers Leicester City, the tide could be starting to change for Villa as they look to pick up form.

Gerrard deserves until the end of the season at the very least to prove  that he is the man to take Villa forward and propel them to the promised land of European football.

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