Man City players take Pep Guardiola instruction too far at Aston Villa

Get the ball into the box and Erling Haaland will be there.

That is the simple message Pep Guardiola has had for his players all season. And despite some early teething problems that did not affect any results other than the Community Shield, that is exactly what Manchester City's players have done.

After one of the more frustrating halves of the season for the reigning Premier League champions, all it took was one magical swing of the right boot of Kevin De Bruyne and there the Norwegian menace was hanging at the back post ready to smash in another ludicrously simple goal. Forty-nine minutes of dogged resistance from Aston Villa was wiped out and Julian Alvarez, Cole Palmer and Riyad Mahrez could all sit back down on the bench knowing they wouldn't now be needed to provide a spark to a City performance that had fizzled out in the fact of resolute defending.

Also read: Man City player ratings vs Aston Villa

That should have made it another three points, only for City to try to find Haaland again and again and again, spurning a number of chances and then conceding an equaliser that they could not react to have to leave the Midlands with a draw.

Guardiola had expressed a wish before the game for Villa to have more points despite the monstrous form City took into this fixture, anticipating that a team and raucous Villa Park would be even more whipped up to get a result when the need for points was greater. City did not need a reminder of how hard they were pushed in both games against Steven Gerrard's side last year.

The presence of Haaland again in the starting XI cannot have improved the home dressing room just as Nottingham Forest were disappointed that theirs was not the game for the deadly striker to get a rest.