Steven Gerrard explains why ‘really good’ Villa fell to Man City onslaught

Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard felt a shift in his players’ mindset was the catalyst for Manchester City’s stunning comeback to clinch the title.

City chief Pep Guardiola knew that victory at the Etihad would give his side the Premier League crown. But things did not go to plan, with the Villans establishing a two-goal lead. Matty Cash opened the scoring on 37 minutes before Philippe Coutinho put Villa 2-0 ahead with 21 minutes to go.

The home faithful were stunned as Liverpool’s 3-1 triumph over Wolves would have seen them walk off with the spoils. However, substitute Ilkay Gundogan pulled one back on 76 minutes before Rodri drew the champions level two minutes later.

Gundogan then bagged the winner on 81 minutes to deafening noise from the stands. City pipped Liverpool by one point to defend their title while Villa ended up in 14th spot.

And Gerrard confessed that his charges’ inability to stick to their task for the full 90 minutes contributed to the result.

“We were really good for 70 minutes, the players carried the plan out exactly as we wanted,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “We caused them a lot of problems but went into protection mode, stopped playing and City were relentless.”

Manchester City and Liverpool are currently streets ahead of the rest of the Premier League teams. Chelsea were a distant third while Tottenham completed the top four.

Gerrard will hope Aston Villa operate nearer to the top of the standings in 2022-2023. But he knows they must learn to concentrate for the whole game to match the class of Guardiola’s side.

“They have been together for long time, spent a lot of money to put one of the best teams in the world together,” he added. “I said to my players that you can never switch off, and they