After a significant player turnover this summer, Gareth Taylor had urged supporters to have patience with his new-look Manchester City team. However, after a disjointed performance in a crushing loss to Aston Villa, led by Rachel Daly, City fans were left with more questions than answers about their club and the manager.
It was Aston Villa’s first victory over Manchester City in five attempts; in their previous four meetings, they had given up 17 goals and failed to score. They had to work hard for the victory at Villa Park as City rallied from two goals down to take the lead before Villa increased the pressure on an ineffective City defense and secured the victory.
It’s a hard one to take,” Taylor added. We received a lifeline shortly before halftime, and we then turned the game around in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, in my opinion. At that moment, it appeared as though we were settling in, but if you score three goals and still lose, even in a draw, it tells you everything about how we were without the ball.
The former Atlético Madrid midfielder Laia Aleixandri made her debut in a midfield that sorely missed the bite provided by Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway, who left for Barcelona and Bayern Munich, respectively, in the summer. There was only room in Taylor’s starting XI for one of his seven new hires.
In the lead-up to the opening goal, Aleixandri felt the strain; she was dispossessed by Villa’s new striker Daly before Alisha Lehmann pounced on the loose ball, dashed to the right, and shot low past Ellie Roebuck.
The home performance, which saw Carla Ward’s Villa team pressing, harrying, and bursting with confidence, was commensurate with the goal. Seven new hires and nine departures were among the changes Ward oversaw over the summer, although City’s transfer window was different from Villa’s in that City had to replace key players, whereas Villa focused on strengthening their team.
With Lehmann this time being the aggressor and beating City midfielder Laura Coombs to a falling ball, which allowed Daly to smash it into the top corner, Villa’s second goal attested to that improvement and City’s waning strength.
Hannah Hampton made a mistake that offered City a chance before halftime; when she leaned back to correct her shaky balance, the young goalkeeper from England sent the ball up into the roof of the net. For City, it was a lifeline. If Taylor had a strategy, none of his players appeared to be aware of it. City pounced in the second half, scoring twice in two minutes to grab the lead for the first time, boosted by the goal and probably fueled by a challenging halftime team talk.
First, Steph Houghton headed a corner from the left back across goal, and Khadija Shaw guided her header into the bottom corner.
Then, winger Chloe Kelly received a pass over the top and sent a cross into the middle for Coombs to score past Hampton. City’s electrifying offensive skills propelled a quick turnaround, but the team’s defensive and midfield frailties would be ruthlessly exposed twice more to negate those efforts.
After falling behind, Villa drew even after three minutes. The newly hired Kenza Dali pounced on a poor pass from Houghton into the middle before darting to her right and blasting past Roebuck, the shot deflecting off Alex Greenwood on its way in.
Daly will be “a major player” for them this season, according to Ward, who also called her players “sensational.” She was ill yesterday and this morning, believe it or not, Ward continued. “We didn’t know if she was going to play after team breakfast, and today she went out and delivered that. She is successful, sets high standards, and pursues wrongdoers, but there is no doubt that she can play.
It’s a different story for Taylor. Can City afford to wait around for too long when they are already out of the Champions League after losing to Real Madrid in qualification on a goal scored by ex-player Caroline Weir and a 12-team league where every point counts?
Villa had a well-deserved victory with less than 15 minutes remaining. Roebuck spilt Kirsty Hanson’s strike, and Daly was there to poke in.
