Manchester City beat Aston Villa 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday to cut the gap to leaders Arsenal to just three points ahead of their Premier League clash on Wednesday night.
City took the lead in the fourth minute as Riyad Mahrez swung in a corner and Rodri’s downward header beat Emiliano Martinez.
The champions looked gevaarlik and Ilkay Gundogan had the ball in the net on 13 minutes, but the goal was disallowed for Erling Haaland being offside in the buildup.
A familiar sight in a familiar fixture! 🤝@IlkayGuendogan doubling our lead! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/UpAmc5T4pK
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 12, 2023
Haaland had the chance to double the lead on 21 minutes when a corner fell to him in the six-yard box, but the Norwegian shot over.
It was all City and in the 39th minute, Haaland set up Gundogan to sweep home to make it 2-0 before Grealish bought a 45th-minute penalty for Mahrez to dispatch and make it 3-0 at halftime.
.@Mahrez22 coolly finishing from the spot! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/BWYUGhucO3
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 12, 2023
Ollie Watkins pulled one back for Villa after the break.
TEAM P W D L F A Pts
1 Arsenal 21 16 3 2 46 18 51
2 Man City 22 15 3 4 56 22 48
3 Man United 23 14 4 5 38 28 46
4 Newcastle 22 10 11 1 35 13 41
5 Tottenham 23 12 3 8 42 35 39
6 Brighton 21 10 5 6 39 28 35
7 Fulham 23 10 5 8 34 30 35
8 Brentford 22 8 10 4 36 29 34
9 Chelsea 22 8 7 7 23 22 31
10 Liverpool 20 8 5 7 34 28 29
11 Aston Villa 22 8 4 10 26 34 28
12 C. Palace 22 6 7 9 20 30 25
13 Leicester 22 7 3 12 36 38 24
14 Forest 22 6 6 10 17 37 24
15 Wolves 22 6 5 11 17 31 23
16 West Ham 22 5 5 12 19 27 20
17 Leeds 22 4 7 11 28 38 19
18 Everton 21 4 6 11 16 28 18
19 B’mouth 22 4 6 12 20 44 18
20 S’thampton 22 4 3 15 18 40 15