Unai Emery's Man City admission shows most important thing Pep Guardiola's side have lost
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has admitted his side felt they could take advantage of Manchester City's lack of confidence during their 2-1 win over Pep Guardiola's side on Saturday.
Goals from Jhon Duran and former City youngster Morgan Rogers were enough to render Phil Foden's goal a consolation as Villa emerged with all three points at Villa Park.
It means City have now won just one of their last 12 matches and only Southampton are in worse form in the Premier League form table than the Cityzens.
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Injuries and a crisis in confidence have taken hold at the Etihad Stadium and the fear factor Guardiola's side have built up across the last five seasons has completely eroded in a matter of weeks.
"We were starting the match trying to press strongly and in the first minute we did fantastic," Emery told Birmingham Live after Villa's win over City.
"We created the first chance through it. In 90 minutes you have to do more things, with and without the ball. Manchester City are a little bit under the confidence they had normally.
"The second half was different, we dominated and we scored. Through those circumstances they were feeling worse than even in the first half."
The defeat has left City in sixth place, and they could tumble further down the table if Bournemouth and Fulham win their matches on Sunday.
Villa's win lifted them to fifth in the table and Emery was asked whether he is confident the Villans can finish above the reigning Premier League champions at the end of the season.
"It is day 17, we have 28 points, trying to get balance in the table. City are behind us but they are going to get better in the next weeks," Emery added.
"We have to try to keep our mentality, to think about the next match and think about the challenge of everything we are facing. We were seventh, my objective now is the next match at Newcastle and trying to keep being consistent more away like we were last year."
