Aston Villa saw their Champions League hopes dented on Wednesday evening as Manchester City produced a scintillating display at The Etihad.
The Premier League champions were back to their best as Phil Foden netted a hat trick to take his tally to 14 goals.
Rodri opened the scoring for the hosts before Jhon Duran equalised with a clever finish in the 20th minute.
City regained their lead on the stroke of halftime through the mercurial 23-year-old before two second-half strikes took Pep Guardiola’s side out of sight.
Paul Robinson, who was covering the game for BBC Sport, was far from impressed with what two of Aston Villa’s players did on Wednesday evening.
Paul Robinson: Aston Villa player ‘will be fuming’ at £15m ace
Foden’s free-kick appeared to go straight through Villa’s wall and evade Robin Olsen, who was starting due to Emi Martinez’s illness.
Robinson suggested the 34-year-old will be fuming with two Villa players who turned their back to the 23-year-old’s strike.
“Initially, you watch and think, how has that gone? How has Robin Olsen got his wall so wrong? But on a second look, you see Nicolo Zaniolo and Morgan Rogers turn inwards and leave a gap for the ball to go through,” he said.
“The goalkeeper got his wall right, but the wall didn’t stand its ground. The keeper will be fuming.”
Rogers, in particular, will learn from Wednesday evening’s humbling. The £15m signing has been in “terrific” form of late, but outings against the best in Europe are precisely what the 21-year-old needs.
What else has been said about Aston Villa’s performance against Manchester City?
TNT Sports pundit Ally McCoist has also ridiculed Villa’s defensive set-up on the stroke of halftime.
“Shocking, you can’t be having that. That’s embarrassing for a defensive wall, it really is, to turn your back like that,” he said.
“Really, really poor. There’s no excuse for it, it costs you a goal.”
Moments like that cannot happen, especially against arguably the best team in Europe. Had Unai Emery’s side gone in all square, there was every chance of them taking something back to the West Midlands.
Yet, due to the visitors chasing the game in the latter stages, City could pick them off at will. Attention will now turn to Saturday’s home fixture against Brentford in what is now a must-win for Villa.
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