At the Etihad Stadium, Man City quickly showed their superiority in all aspects against Aston Villa. With Erling Haaland playing highest, Pep Guardiola's 3-2-4-1 formation played very smoothly with many ideas from the midfield. Just in the 4th minute, from Riyad Mahrez's assist, Rodri moved extremely well from the outside before heading the ball into the net of Emiliano Martinez. A very classy goal from the Manchester giant. It showed the sophistication as well as the strength and wisdom of the satellites playing around Haaland.
Riding on the momentum, in the 39th minute, the score was raised to 2-0. After a header passed back by a Villa defender, Haaland accelerated to occupy the area near the touchline before passing the ball for Gundogan to finish. At close range, Man City's number 8 easily doubled the gap with a close-range shot.
Just before the break, things got even easier for Pep's team. From a break on the left wing by Jack Grealish, Jacob Ramsey clumsily committed a foul right in the penalty area. The Man City midfielder was very clever when he took the initiative to fall, so the referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot. On the 11m mark, Mahrez easily increased the score to 3-0. A worthy result for the home team when they created a completely proactive game and imposed their style of play across the field.
At the beginning of the second half, Man City suffered a big loss when Haaland had to leave the field due to injury. According to initial information, the team's top scorer will be left open the possibility of playing against Arsenal. The victory within reach of Aston Villa will leave a mark if the Norwegian striker cannot play in the big match. But anyway, everything is still under the control of the blue army.
In the remaining minutes, Villa scored a goal thanks to Watkins in the 61st minute. But that was not enough for Unai Emery to close the huge gap between the two sides. Winning the final match 3-1, Man Xanh has 48 points after 22 matches, 3 points behind Arsenal but has played 1 more match. If they win against the Gunners, Pep's stars will confidently lead the Premier League with a completely superior sub-index compared to their opponents.
Before that, Man Utd also had a fairly easy victory at Leeds United. Rashford and Garnacho were the ones who scored for the Red Devils in the 2-0 win at Elland Road. Although the ball was put into the home team's net twice more but was not recognized, it was enough for Erik ten Hag's team to maintain 3rd place with 46 points, 5 points more than Newcastle United despite playing 1 more game.
At present, the race between Arsenal and Man City is still very tense as the Gunners continuously lose their advantage. However, if they get a favorable result in the upcoming direct confrontation, everything will change for Mikel Arteta and his team. Otherwise, no one knows what will happen this season./.
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