Leon Bailey earns Aston Villa point after Haaland strikes for Manchester City

Aston Villa may have been unable to halt Erling Haaland but Steven Gerrard’s side prevented the striker from running riot and Manchester City taking victory. Stopping Haaland was a daunting prospect in itself but given the way City eviscerated Nottingham Forest in midweek this was an impressive point for Villa, who levelled through Leon Bailey’s wonderful first-time finish. When Haaland struck his 10th goal in six games early in the second half it seemed City would deepen the misery on Gerrard but Villa roused to claim a point and in the end it was Pep Guardiola, the sleeves on his white shirt rolled up, who was left tutting on the touchline in frustration.

Riyad Mahrez somehow shot wide with two minutes to spare, moments after Rodri saw a shot whistle narrowly past a post. But Villa will argue they were denied a winner when the substitute Philippe Coutinho sent a shot crashing in off the crossbar, after the referee Simon Hooper had already blown his whistle because the assistant referee Adrian Holmes raised his flag for offside. Many of City’s players had stopped by the time the ball flew in past Ederson.

Haaland started this game with aspirations of becoming the first player in 76 years to score a hat-trick in a third successive top-flight game but in a first half that wriggled away from Pep Guardiola’s grasp City failed to feed the Haaland machine. With four minutes gone Kyle Walker skated into the Villa box on the overlap but blazed over instead of squaring to Haaland who was lurking to his left. It seemed a foolish decision given six of Haaland’s nine goals before kick-off had come inside the six-yard box. Walker raised his hands in regret. The tap-in for his goal was to make it 10. Another apology came Haaland’s