“We’re not really here,” sang the Manchester City fans in the North Stand, as is their wont. They were, of course; the away end was packed. Unlike the Doug Ellis Stand and even the sparsely populated Holte End. It was the Aston Villa fans who were not really here, judging an FA Cup tie superfluous in this most trying of Premier League seasons – and when their side went a goal down in less than four minutes, it was difficult to blame them.
The absent Villa fans missed a Kelechi Iheanacho hat-trick, though they would not have enjoyed that as much as the City support, anyway. Or Manuel Pellegrini. “I see him every day in training, I know what he can do,” the City manager said, before revealing he was intending to promote the young striker to his Champions League squad. “Kelechi is the reason we did not feel the need to replace Edin Dzeko or Stevan Jovetic.”
Rémi Garde had pointed out in the match programme that City were his first opponents as Villa manager, and on that day, in November, the relegation strugglers had been greatly encouraged by a fighting 0-0 draw in a game they were expected to lose. That had been against a full-strength City side, too. The visitors made a few changes here, notably resting Sergio Agüero to allow Iheanacho to lead the attack – and, from the first corner of the game, the Nigerian teenager put his side in front.
When Bacary Sagna headed on Fabian Delph’s corner at the near post, Fernando met the flick at the far post with a powerful header of his own. It was blocked on the line, might even have crossed it, though before there was time to launch an appeal Iheanacho had swept in the loose ball to make sure.
City’s second goal, midway through the first half, was definitely Iheanacho’s. He confidently sent Brad Guzan the wrong way from the spot after Leandro Bacuna was adjudged to have shoved Raheem Sterling in the area. Whether there was sufficient contact or intent to warrant a penalty was more debatable, but Sterling went flying instead of reaching Jesús Navas’s cross and Michael Jones found in City’s favour.
Having decided it was a foul, the referee could have dismissed Bacuna but chose not to, probably reasoning that Sterling was not certain to score, although he might have thought Villa were suffering enough and the paying customers did not deserve to see an even more one-sided game. He did book Bacuna, along with Sterling, after a minor spat between the pair a couple of minutes later.
Villa’s only effort of note in a first half accurately summed up by one disgruntled home supporter queuing for a half-time drink as “men against boys”, was a late shot by Idrissa Gana. It was comfortably gathered by the under-employed Willy Caballero, though replays suggested it might have been going wide of the target anyway.
The unappetising second-half dilemma facing Aston Villa was whether to get the game over as quickly and painlessly as possible, or try to get back into it and have City send on Agüero and David Silva.
Better finishing from Sterling would have put them out of their misery as the game approached the hour mark but he put one attempt too close to Guzan from Fernandinho’s right-wing cross, then could only head over the bar when stretching to reach a similar ball from Navas.
Carles Gil brought a decent save from Caballero with a curling free-kick, before two goals in as many minutes killed any semblance of a contest and resulted in a few more home fans heading for the exits.
Iheanacho’s third came courtesy of a dreadful back pass from Gana, inviting the striker to run into an empty half and beat Guzan at his leisure, though it must be said he did so with some aplomb. Iheanacho was even involved in the fourth goal, when his acrobatic overhead kick did not quite come off but fell perfectly for Sterling to bundle in.
Garde looked rueful but resigned, though the FA Cup is not the biggest battle last year’s runners-up face this season, and everyone seemed to know it.
“We turn to the next league match and our huge target,” the Villa manager said. “To give ourselves a chance, I hope we don’t start as poorly against West Ham as we did in this game.”
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