Vassell comes back to haunt Villa
Manchester City have tonight moved up to fourth in the Barclays Premiership table after a impressive 3-1 victory over Aston Villa. It was Villa old boy Darius Vassell who handed City the points with two good goals. Since leaving Villa in the summer, Vassell has formed a promising partnership with Cole. While Vassell prospered, Villa keeper Taylor endured a debut he will want to quickly forget. Called into the Villa side at short notice after first choice keeper Thomas Sorensen twisted his ankle in the warm-up, Taylor's debut quickly began to unravel after a calamitous misunderstanding with Samuel. Taylor had rushed out to gather a Vassell flick on but he was left in no-man's land as Samuel headed the ball past him. It left Vassell the simplest of tasks to slide the ball home. If Vassell's first goal had an element of the ridiculous about it, his second had a touch of the sublime about it. Picking up Danny Mills' cross Cole bamboozled Ridgewell before flicking the ball into Vassell's path. Without breaking stride Vassell volleyed the ball past Taylor.
Early in the second half Cole drove a shot narrowly past the post, after he was released by Stephen Ireland's inventive pass. After a woeful first-half showing, Villa proved less brittle after the interval. That change had much to do with the introduction of Berger, whose ability to cross the ball from the left began to unsettle Villa. On 65 minutes a Berger cross eluded James, allowing Ridgewell to bundle the ball across the line. Unfortunately for Villa, Berger limped off with an injury with a quarter of an hour to go. With Villa's main threat out of the game, City regained control of the game and Cole's shot - deflected off Mark Delaney, restored their two-goal lead. Final score: Man City3-1 Aston Villa.
A very impressive victory for Man City which now lifts them to fourth in the league. City controlled most of the procedings apart from a little spell in the second half when Villa pressed and scored. Villa are on the verge of a take over and I wonder how much that, that played on the Villa players minds. Great stuff from Vassell and it wasn't any surprise he scored against the club he spent 15 years at. Man City's Stephen Ireland really played well tonight and he has done for the past few weeks.