Rarely can a Villa win over reigning champions have looked so routine.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.comSaturday’s 2-1 victory against Manchester City might not have heralded the same fanfare as last December’s 1-0 triumph over the same opponents, in large part because Pep Guardiola’s team are so clearly a faded force.
That might well be true. This time, City actually scored. But while Phil Foden’s goal deep into stoppage time might have caused a few hearts to flutter among the more nervous of the home side’s support, the truth is Villa’s win rarely looked in doubt from the moment Jhon Duran fired them in front 16 minutes in.
No player typified it more than Rogers. The 22-year-old never really came close to making a first-team appearance during four years with City before being sold to Middlesbrough for a fee of less than £2million less than 18 months ago. As Pep Guardiola rightly later pointed out, it would be wrong to dwell too much on that decision, considering the heights his team were hitting at the time.
While the Colombia international and Rogers might have grabbed the headlines, the secret to Villa’s success on Saturday lay in a midfield engine room which for the first time saw Amadou Onana and Boubacar Kamara paired together from the start.
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