Manchester City 4-1 Aston Villa
by James Nalton
at Eastlands

MANCHESTER CITY’S star players Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland received loud cheers from the City fans as they ambled off the subs bench to warm up in the second half, but neither were required during their 4-1 win at home to Aston Villa as Phil Foden showed his own star quality.

The attacking midfielder from Stockport, who is staking a claim to be the best English footballer amid strong competition, scored a hat-trick that showed once again he is one of the best players in this talented team.

The closest Haaland and De Bruyne got to the pitch was that spell in the second half when they warmed up on the touchline, likely knowing they wouldn’t be needed, stood watching the action alongside another unneeded, unused sub, England’s best centre-back, John Stones.

City were on top for much of the game but it could have been trickier than Foden’s goals eventually made it for them if the first half was anything to go by.

Having taken the lead when Rodri turned in Jeremy Doku’s cross, it then looked like the teams would go in level at halftime when Jhon Duran pulled one back for Villa following a neat one-two with Nicolo Zaniolo.

But Zaniolo was to have a negative impact for Villa when he moved aside in the wall allowing Foden’s free-kick through to give City the lead again in first-half added time.

A quick bit of footwork from Rodri set up Foden’s second before the hat-trick goal was pinged into the top corner from outside the area after Villa lost the ball in the build-up.

It turned into another regular day at the office for Man City and their supporters as they continued their quest to become the first team to win four consecutive English league titles.

That was except for the group of City fans wanting to protest against ticket price rises, whose voices were silenced by the club.

Ahead of the game against Arsenal last weekend, a group of fans held up a banner reading: "Record profits but record prices. Stop exploiting our loyalty."

It came after the club raised ticket prices for next season despite boasting about successive years of record-breaking revenues and profits when they released their finances last November.

That banner was soon confiscated once images of it began to circulate on social media.

The 1894 supporters’ group was then prohibited from displaying their banners at this subsequent home game versus Aston Villa after not receiving the required accreditation from the club to do so.