Man City 3-0 Aston Villa: Raheem Sterling strikes after slow start by champions

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Joe Krishnan26 October 2019

A clinical second-half performance from Manchester City helped the Premier League champions to a 3-0 win over Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium.

Raheem Sterling continued his fine run of form, scoring 20 seconds after half time before David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan made sure of three points late on.

The result means Man City close the gap on leaders Liverpool to three points, with Jurgen Klopp's side facing Tottenham on Sunday.

Gabriel Jesus, chosen ahead of Sergio Aguero, wasted a golden opportunity after just five minutes to give Pep Guardiola's side the lead.

David Silva was involved in the build-up as he found Gundogan and when his shot deflected into the path of Jesus, the Brazilian fired a snapshot wide from seven yards.

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City began to dominate the ball but struggled to find a way through, being limited to a long-range effort from Joao Cancelo which was held well by Tom Heaton.

Minutes later, Villa could have gone ahead. A mistake from John Stones allowed John McGinn in on goal and his curled effort was tipped out by Ederson. On the rebound, ex-City youngster Douglas Luiz followed up but his compatriot pulled off a fine save.

The champions went close just before half time as Gundogan and Raheem Sterling combined down the left and the latter found Silva, who looked certain to find the net only to drag his shot wide.

After holding firm for the majority of the first half, Villa were undone within 20 seconds of the restart. Tyrone Mings failed to deal with a long ball forward from Ederson and Sterling pounced on the loose ball before slotting underneath Heaton.

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That seemed to open the floodgates as De Bruyne's wicked cross into the box caused havoc and Silva's slight touch put it beyond Heaton to double the lead.

Just five minutes later, it was three. Villa failed to clear Fernandinho's cross and when it came out to Gundogan, he struck it first time with superb technique to kill off any threat of a comeback.

However, Fernandinho was then sent off late on to add to City's defensive problems, picking up a needless second yellow card with just three minutes left.

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