Manchester City beat Aston Villa 4-0 in their FA Cup fourth round tie on Saturday afternoon, with Remi Garde's men being beaten for the first time in five games.

Villa did field a strong team in this tie as, Brad Guzan came in for Mark Bunn, whilst Carles Gil, Scott Sinclair and Jordan Ayew all started.

As for the visitors, they dropped Sergio Aguero and David Silva to the bench, the duo replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho and Jesus Navas. Also, Willy Caballero replaced Joe Hart between the sticks and Bacary Sagna came in for Martin Demichelis at the heart of the defence.

City put tie to bed early on

The visitors were handed the perfect start to the tie when the impressive Iheanacho stabbed home from close range following a flick from Sangna from a Fabian Delph corner, to give the hosts the lead. 

City were all over Villa in the opening stages and doubled their lead when Raheem Sterling was taken down by Leandro Bacuna inside the area, Iheanacho stepping up to calmly strike the visitors into a two nil lead inside the opening half an hour at Villa Park, leaving the hosts with a mountain to climb.

City once again came close, through Fernandinho, but his right footed shot from the right hand side of the six yard box was easily saved by Guzan. Villa could only register one shot on target in the half, and this came in the 43rd minute as Clark saw a header from a difficult angle on the right hand side saved by Caballero.

City coast through second half, but Villa improve

The visitors put on a resolute showing in the second half to stroll towards a comfortable win. Villa offered very little going forward and introduced Jores Okore at the break in the place of the disappointing Ashley Westwood.

The best chance in the early stages of the second half came in the 56th minute when a Sterling header from Navas' cross went narrowly wide of the post as City pressed for a third.

The Villans nearly unlocked the City defence as Sinclair tried to slot Clark in, but Otamendi was there to clear the danger to preserve the City two goal cushion. Villa came even closer in the 68th minute when a fantastic free-kick from Gil came close with a curling free-kick, but City's number two, Caballero was on hand to claw out the effort and send it behind.

The home side were creating many chances in the second half, and kept plugging away but couldn't cope with City. The Citizens went on to  score a quick fire double, as the superb Iheanacho completed his hat-trick with a left footed strike from the centre of the box and into the bottom corner of the next.

Sterling then continued the rout as he made it 4-0 with 15 minutes to go, slotting in a right footed strike from close range after great work from Iheanacho. Villa, did actually control more possession than the visitors, but that was the only department in which they were better, with City's young guns making for a bad day at the office. 

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Tom  Mason
Im 18 years old and a studying media. Write for the Southampton, Cricket and Tennis sections. Am an sports writer and have been writing for Vavel since August 2015 Twitter: @tom_mason18