Stuttering Manchester City lose 1-0 to Aston Villa

BIRMINGHAM, England : Aston Villa stunned Manchester City with a fully-deserved 1-0 win on Wednesday thanks to a deflected shot from Leon Bailey, leaving the reigning Premier League champions in an unfamiliar fourth position and six points off the top.

Unai Emery's Villa, enjoying their best season for years, oozed with confidence and dominated the game throughout, leap-frogging City to third in the table.

After squandering a hatful of chances, Villa's winner came in the 74th minute when Bailey took the ball just past the halfway line, ran at City's defence and unleashed a shot that hit Ruben Dias' foot to beat goalkeeper Ederson.

Minutes later, Douglas Luiz struck the post for the hosts, who could have won by a larger margin in a surprisingly one-sided game, to the noisy delight of the majority at Villa Park.

The result left Pep Guardiola's Manchester City on 30 points after 15 games - six points behind leaders Arsenal - and without a win in their last four Premier League matches.

Aston Villa moved up to third on 32 points, two behind Liverpool and four behind Arsenal.