Aston Villa 1-0 Manchester City: Leon Bailey goal dents City title hopes to leave them six points behind Arsenal

Leon Bailey's second-half strike further dented Manchester City's title hopes as Aston Villa claimed a deserved 1-0 victory.

Unai Emery's side, who have now won 14 Premier League home games in a row, were on top for large parts of the clash, as the Spaniard earned his first win as a manager over compatriot Pep Guardiola.

Only a flying stop from Ederson prevented Pau Torres from curling the hosts in front early on, while a double save from Emiliano Martinez kept Erling Haaland at bay at the other end.

They were the only shots on target of the evening for the visitors though, who spent most of the night on the back foot and saw Bailey, Lucas Digne and Ezri Konsa all come close to breaching their defence.

The second half was a tighter affair, but John McGinn should have put Villa in front just after the hour mark when he dipped into the penalty area before tucking his shot just wide.

The miss mattered not though, as Bailey finally put his side 1-0 up with an effort from the edge of the box that took a huge deflection and looped in.

Luiz nearly got a second with a curling effort that hit the post late on, whereas City huffed and puffed for no reward at the other end, as they found a stubborn and resilient defence in their way.

Man City have failed to win in their last four Premier League games, taking three points from a possible 12.

On a busy night of Premier League action, Liverpool kept in touch with leaders Arsenal by edging to a 2-0 victory over Sheffield United, who had Chris Wilder back in the dugout after he replaced Paul Heckingbottom.

Manchester United, meanwhile, alleviated some of the pressure on under-fire manager Erik ten Hag as they beat Chelsea 2-1.

Scott McTominay got both goals for the Red Devils, who named Marcus Rashford on the bench and bounced back from their defeat at St James' Park to Newcastle at the weekend.

Elsewhere, relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest suffered a 5-0 defeat at the hands of fellow strugglers Fulham.

Alex Iwobi and Raul Jimenez both netted twice for the Cottagers during a 3-0 victory that means Steve Cooper’s side have won just one of their last 11 top flight matches.

They’ve now dropped to 16th place in the table, below Bournemouth, who made it four games without defeat by beating Crystal Palace 2-0, while Brighton earned a second win in nine Premier League outings by beating Brentford 2-1.

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