City held to a stalemate by Steven Gerrard's Villa

High riser! Erling Haaland rises the highest to connect with a fine Kevin De Bruyne cross for City's goal against Aston Villa on Saturda...

High riser! Erling Haaland rises the highest to connect with a fine Kevin De Bruyne cross for City's goal against Aston Villa on Saturday. It ended 1-1. (Photo credit: Premierleague.com)

The Premier League continues to show why it’s the best league in the world with yet another shocking result at Villa Park on Saturday as troubled Aston Villa held champions Manchester City to a 1-1 draw to hand Steven Gerrard some reprieve.

The champions won the league at Villa Park last season but it was pretty; they were made to sweat again on Saturday as a sleek Leon Bailley goal rescued a point for Gerrard’s side and threw some clogs into the wheels of Manchester City.

Douglas Luiz was handed a starting shirt after Villa won the battle to keep him on deadline day and he was immense in a midfield battle that had Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Bernardo Silva as active accusers from the other end.

For all their dominance, City didn’t exactly trouble Emiliano Martinez in the Villa goal but as expected, Erling Haaland got on the end of a majestic De Bruyne cross early in the second half and it was 1-0; that was his tenth goal in six games.

The Norwegian’s number is scary and defenses can’t do so much about it. Back-to-back hattricks followed up by another fine goal at Villa Park justifies what everyone thinks of him and with ten on the clock in just six games, where would he end the season?

Villa struck back on the 74^th minute; a rare moment of pathetic confusion in the City defense saw Jacob Ramsey thread one beautifully to Bailley and the Jamaican obliged with a great finish that Ederson couldn’t do anything about.

Villa had the ball in the net again not long after their goal but the whistle had gone before the ball left the toes of Phillippe Coutinho; replays showed the offside call was a wrong one and you will need the rule book to tell us why the linesman didn’t wait before flagging Ramsey offside.

It ended 1-1 at Villa Park, City dropping points for the second time this season and would now hope United stops Arsenal on Sunday to avoid the Gunners going clear of them.