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The time when Pep Guardiola called Matheus Nunes one of the best players in the world feels distant. The statement was discredited long before Guardiola said his £50m signing was not clever enough to play in the middle.
But as a makeshift right-back, Nunes may have sent Manchester City surging back into the Champions League. He has often looked a bad buy and yet, in an instant, a man deemed a waste of money could have scored a priceless goal.
Aston Villa may have been the form team in the country, with 10 wins in 11 before they arrived at the Etihad, on course for a first point there since 2007. But in injury time, up popped the midfielder Guardiola does not like to use in midfield, Nunes using his running power to arrive at the far post and turn in Jeremy Doku’s low cross.
City’s recruitment in the summer of 2023 has long seemed far from ideal and looks a reason for their regression. Yet two of the men signed two years ago combined, Villa were beaten and City have a four-point lead over their immediate rivals with four games to go and similar run-ins. It will be hard for Villa to overhaul City now. In seventh, they are on the wrong side of the dotted line.
For Guardiola, who had cut a frustrated figure for much of the match, there was an assist of sorts. He brought on Doku to run at Villa’s replacement right-back Axel Disasi. That played its part in a goal that had a cruelty for Villa. For the 15th consecutive time in the Premier League, they left the Etihad pointless. It is an extraordinary run, one they almost ended.
Guardiola is entitled to feel his leftfield choices worked. The surprise inclusion was James McAtee and, in the biggest game of his career, he had come closest to a winner before then, an audacious lob dropping just wide.
Instead, they bookended the game with goals, scoring early and late. One of Bernardo Silva’s greatest City goals came against Aston Villa. So, now, one that had an importance, just his fourth of the campaign steered in after Omar Marmoush’s cutback. Emi Martinez should have saved it, but instead pushed it into the net, just as Ezri Konsa could have cleared Marmoush’s cross but only touched it into Silva’s path.
In between, much of the match revolved around a man returning to Manchester. Marcus Rashford scored from the spot, almost made a more explosive impact on his return to his home town by hitting the woodwork inside 20 seconds and, after troubling Paris Saint-Germain last week, posed City problems. His ability to burst in behind their defence and evident sharpness showed what Manchester United have been lacking in their attack.
Unai Emery had benched Ollie Watkins, despite Saturday’s star turn, to recall Rashford. He almost got instant vindication with one of the quickest goals of the season, saw Rashford score later and watched the men he signed prove a menace. His goal was just a second in the Premier League for Villa but, over the course of his career, a fourth at the Etihad. There might have been a fifth, Rashford rounding Stefan Ortega in the second half but finding the side netting from an acute angle. Villa had scored after 33 seconds against Newcastle and almost made a still swifter start, Rashford striking the inside of the post.
Like Watkins’ opener on Saturday, it stemmed from a pass from Youri Tielemans. Villa’s marathon man was making his 50th start of the season, encompassing every game in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Villa’s penalty was controversial and yet should not have been. Ruben Dias knocked Jacob Ramsey over, a high-speed collision of players running at different angles.
Sent to the monitor, referee Craig Pawson belatedly awarded the penalty. Rashford coolly converted it. Guardiola was cautioned for complaining about it. As two detail obsessives showed their idiosyncrasies on the touchline, he could not hide his irritation while Emery, like a particularly animated mime artist, worked his way through a variety of gestures.
But Guardiola’s side pushed for the winner. Marmoush had a goal disallowed when offside. As Emery, as ever, worked his way through a raft of substitutions, Guardiola made just one before the 96th minute, bringing on Doku. He had played 4-2-2-2. It gave City four central midfielders to combat Villa’s strength in the middle of the pitch. Guardiola’s most advanced players were the two wingers. And the idea of looking to outflank Villa paid dividends with a cross from the left winger, for the right-back.
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