
Sergio Aguero broke two records as Aston Villa leave Villa Park red faced.
Words: Regan Foy | @findfoy
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Aston Villa hosted reigning Premier League champions Manchester City at Villa Park this afternoon, with Orjan Nyland making his first Premier League start, Danny Drinkwater making his debut, and Pepe Reina watching from the stands.
The first shot of the game came in the 8th minute as City’s Joao Cancelo tried to fire from range, but his attempt curled away from goal.
Manchester City’s first goal of the game came from nothing as De Bruyne dummied a ball to allow it to fall to Mahrez on the left, where he dribbled into the box, past Danny Drinkwater and Kortney Hause, before poking the ball into the bottom corner.
Mahrez picked up the second too, just five or so minutes later, as Drinkwater was caught in the box by David Silva, who played a ball across the box for the Algerian to poke past Orjan Nyland.
It was Aguero with the third in the 28th, as De Bruyne found him in a central position before he raced forward and fired from outside box. Nyland managed to get a hand to hit but couldn’t stop the ball from hitting the back of the net.
On the brink of the end of the first half, Kevin De Bruyne played an inch-perfect pass into space for Gabriel Jesus who ran towards the back post and finished.
In the opening five minutes of the first half, Fernandinho was booked for a tactical foul on Jack Grealish as the midfielder broke into the City final third.
Goal number five came around 10 minutes into the second half, with David Silva picking a pass for Aguero, who had already become the joint highest-scoring foreign import to the Premier League with his earlier goal. The Argentian doubled his tally with this shot.
Douglas Luiz was replaced by Marvelous Nakamba just after the hour mark, with De Bruyne and Fernandinho making way for City a few minutes earlier.
Trezeguet made an appearance, replacing Hourihane, in the 71st minute.
Towards the final 10 minutes, Henri Lansbury replaced debutant Danny Drinkwater. Jack Grealish was booked for dissent after what he perceived to be a foul on Trezeguet.
Aguero broke another record with his 12th ever hat-trick in the 81st minute as a lax pass from Kortney Hause allowed City to play through the Argentinian, who fired high past Nyland and into the net.
With the last kick of the game, Anwar El Ghazi netted Aston Villa’s first Premier League penalty of the season.