The positivity that has been emanating from the Villa faithful as a result of the unlikely victory is undoubtedly a good thing, but some of you seem to have watched the game through claret and blue tinted spectacles. For vast periods of the game Manchester City played truly wonderful football. For vast periods of the first half, Villa were abject.
Indeed we never truly got our attacking play going in the way we had against Arsenal, Chelsea or even the second half against Liverpool. The Liverpool match, which disappointed most was actually a more coherent performance, but it didn't glean any goals and if your slick build up play doesn't produce the required results, large swathes of the crowd are never going to love you.
After the cup game against Spurs, in which a disjointed ragbag of Villa players had failed to show anything like cohesion, I was expecting far better as a more recognisable line up took to the pitch, even given the quality of the opposition, but in that desperate first half, we just couldn't get going. Weimann and Kozak found it impossible to hold the ball up, leading to wave upon wave of Man City attacks. The pluses for us were that there was no Aguero to take advantage of our opponents massive possessional advantage and that James Milner now looks a shadow of the player that had bloomed in his final season at Villa Park. Nasri was a constant problem, although his short temper makes him his own worst enemy.
Thankfully, Lambert's decision to go with three centre halves solved the problem of our full backs being caught dangerously out of position and while our defending may have lacked technical quality, it was full of energy and determination, meaning that our illustrious visitors were finding it nigh on impossible to fashion chances from their dominance in open play. What they were able to do though is win an awful lot of corners, and from these, they always looked dangerous.
We could debate for hours the benefits of zonal versus man-to-man marking, but whichever system you plump for, you need to make sure that your team is capable of playing it. We are still worryingly unsecure at set plays.
Yaya Toure, the intimidating architect of many of their best moves, finally managed a goal that for a long time had seemed inevitable. Half-time, I thought, would be brief respite. It turned out to be a turning point.
Your reaction to the El Ahmadi equaliser was different depending on whether you've actually played football or not. Those who can't remember when the last time was they pulled on a pair of boots went into instant celebration. The rest looked straight at the linesman to check their hadn't been a flag, because they were certainly expecting one. Like I said though, swings and roundabouts. On other days, an offside would definitely have been given, but with the number of dodgy decisions that go against us, we're surely entitled to the rub of the green occasionally.Being level at this stage was a definite bonus and if only we could hold the line, we might get an unlikely point. If only we could hold the ball and stop giving set pieces away. We couldn't. Another dangerous Nasri corner wasn't dealt with and Dzeko met with little resistance as he headed home.
Dead and buried? We would have been last season. If anything, going behind again proved to be the catalyst that stirred Villa in a more meaningful passage of forward play. Suddenly, Pellegrini's expensive charges seemed jittery, and as Villa advanced up the pitch, tackles became more reckless and ill-thought out.
Then the moment of magic. A free kick outside the area. Ron Vlaar looked as if he was lining up but Bacuna was lurking ominously. In came the kick, a thunderbolt, perfectly placed. Even if Joe Hart hadn't made life difficult for himself with his positioning and hadn't stayed rooted to the spot, he might not have got near it. It was a glorious moment for the young Dutchman, who some fickle Villa fans had instantly written off after his shaky start against Liverpool. They are easy to spot, these trolls, the same ones who also think Tonev is a waste of space.
Not that it's their fault, it's hot-wired into a Villa fan's DNA to be hyper-critical of our own players. People round me used to catcall Gary Shaw and Tony Morley for not doing enough while we were in the process of winning the league. Some people just like being miserable sods.
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After all the hot air about Villa being a long ball team, the style of the winner was delicious. It couldn't have been more route one if it had been scored by Graham Taylor's Watford in the 80s. What you have to admire is Brad Guzan's vision. Manchester City's defence had a Chuckle Brothers moment, Kozak's flick on was sublime and Andreas Weimann was the epitome of cool as he calmly went past the charging Joe Hart and rolled the ball casually goal-wards. Slightly too casually for my nervous ticker, but hey it eventually rolled over the line.They say time moves quicker as you get older. That last twenty minutes didn't go quickly. Not at all. Manchester City wanted it, we didn't want to let it go and scarily Yaya Toure looked as good in the game's last knockings as he did in the pomp of City's first half dominance.
The final whistle. Three points against the favourites for the league title – and I'd maintain, justified favourites on this showing – but most importantly for us, a taste for our players of how sweet Villa Park can be when we graft out a win.
So yes, it wasn't pretty. Yes, we were completely outplayed for long periods of the game. Doesn't matter. Without, you could argue, four of our key players, we've beaten a quality team.
Let's build on it.
Let's give Potatohead a torrid time, use the international break to recharge the batteries and then show Spurs that this time, we won't get caught with our pants down.
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