Premier League: Man City’s woes continue with 1-2 defeat at Villa Park
Aston Villa secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Manchester City in a gripping Premier League clash at Villa Park.
Manchester City’s extraordinary winning streak ended at 18 matches here on Sunday with a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace in the 21st round of the English Premier League (EPL) football championship.
Pep Guardiola-coached City fell one victory shy of breaking the longest winning run in the major European leagues, recorded by Bayern Munich under him in 2014, reports Efe.
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Man City, who are yet to lose a league match this season, struggled to pierce the host’s defence at Selhurst Park in London.
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The EPL leaders nearly lost the game in the 90th minute when Palace were awarded a penalty after Wilfried Zaha was appeared to have been fouled by Raheem Sterling. Luka Milivojevic of Serbia, however, missed the best scoring chance in the match, firing the ball into the legs of Man City’s Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson.
In the following counter-attack, City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne clashed with Palace’s Jason Puncheon and both were stretchered off.
City had their chances, which were squandered by Argentine substitute Sergio Aguero. The Argentine was brought in to replace injured Gabriel Jesus in the 23rd minute.
Man City also missed David Silva, who was not even called up for the match, and they lacked solutions to Palace’s defensive approach.
Guardiola brought Raheem Sterling and Yaya Toure during the second half but without any changes on the scoreboard.
After the draw, City remain at the top of the EPL standings with 59 points, 14 points ahead of second-placed Chelsea.
After the match, Guardiola said that Jesus “will be out for maybe one month of two months”.
Reacting to the match’s result, Guardiola said: “The second half was a little bit better than the first, we had a little problems but in the end Ederson helped us to get a point.
“We have to focus. When we win, we focus on the next one, when we don’t win, we have to focus on the next one.”
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