Manchester City and Aston Villa drama gives new massive twist to Champions League race | OneFootball

Manchester City and Aston Villa have served up the latest twist in the race for Champions League places.

Both clubs having FA Cup semi-finals this coming weekend (Palace v Villa on Saturday, Forest v Man City on Sunday), so this Premier League match brought forward to Tuesday night.

It was a strange one.

A very boring match to watch for the majority of the 90+ minutes, but at the same time, such drama.

It was fifth v seventh in the race for Champions League places, all five clubs (Forest, Newcastle, Man City, Chelsea, Villa) separated by only three points, Man City one point ahead of Villa going into last night’s match with all clubs having only five games left to play.

Only around 15 seconds into the game, Rashford brilliantly turned the defender inside out on the edge of the box and beat Ortega with his shot, only to see the ball strike the post and fortunately bounce straight back into the Man City keeper’s arms.

That woke Man City up and their pressure quickly told, Marmoush skinned his man (why don’t Man City players try this occasionally instead of a thousand sideways and backwards passes?) and the cutback deflected to Silva who shot straight at Martinez for what should have been an easy save. Instead, the Villa keeper hilariously parried the soft shot before deflecting it into his own net with seven minutes on the clock.

Man City dominating possession but then out of nowhere an equaliser on 18 minutes. A rare venture into the Man City half saw Ramsey go down in the box after contact from Dias, the referee playing on but VAR stopping the game. We all know what then happens, why they bother with having the on the pitch referee looking at a screen is a mystery. It was a soft penalty but daft from Dias to give the Villa player the opportunity to make contact, Guardiola going way over the top as he made out it was the worst penalty decision ever given. Rashford coolly scoring the spot-kick.

That then ruined the game from any entertainment perspective for neutrals, after what had been a quite eventful opening 18 minutes. As Villa defended deep and clearly very happy if it stayed at 1-1, whilst Man City reverting to that endless passing that goes nowhere.

Fast forward though to the fourth minute of added time, with the final whistle only a minute or so away, substitute Doku only the second home player on the night to break the strict Man City rules of only sideways and backwards. Like Marmoush after seven minutes, Doku in the 94th minute losing his head and taking his man on, skinning him totally and a beautiful ball across the six yard box found Nunes to knock in the winner.

For the Aston Villa fans who had declared they were the best team in the world and would never be defeated ever again, after managing to defeat Newcastle, a bit of a reality check only three days later.

Ahead of this Manchester City v Aston Villa clash, we asked Newcastle fans which result they wanted, this was the response.

36% Manchester City win

54% Draw

10% Aston Villa win

This is how it now leaves the Premier League table on the morning of Tuesday 23 April 2025:

I think on balance, not a bad result for Newcastle United.

Looking at the remaining games (see below) for all of the five clubs chasing Champions League, I always thought Man City looked like they had the easiest run-in.

A win against Ipswich on Saturday would take Newcastle above Man City by a point with four games to play.

Whilst United would then be five points ahead of Villa, if beating Ipswich. Newcastle are also 13 goals better off now than Villa when it comes to goal difference.

The remaining matches for the Champions League chasing clubs:

Man City 61 points GD +23

Wolves (H), Southampton (A), Bournemouth (H), Fulham (A)

Forest 60 points GD +14

Brentford (H), Palace (A), Leicester (H), West Ham (A), Chelsea (H)

Newcastle United 59 points GD +18

Ipswich (H), Brighton (A), Chelsea (H), Arsenal (A), Everton (H)

Chelsea 57 points GD +18

Everton (H), Liverpool (H), Newcastle (A), Man U (H), Forest (A)