After Bernardo Silva gained control of the ball, Aston Villa's midfielders moved to press him.
Hourihane and Jedinak hurried to close the playmaker down.
But Bernardo Silva was ready.
He stepped on the ball with his right foot and executed a lightning-quick turn, shaking them off with ease.
Hourihane and Jedinak were left looking like scarecrows in a field, frozen and unable to make a timely interception.
A vast expanse of open space opened up in front of the Portuguese midfielder.
Not a single Villa player was close enough to apply pressure. Taking the invitation, Silva drove forward.
While he might not possess the explosive pace of someone like Gareth Bale, his dribbling speed is by no means slow.
Before long, he was charging powerfully toward the Aston Villa penalty area.
The Villa midfield tensed, panic flashing in their eyes. Center-back Tyrone Mings decided he had to act, stepping up decisively.
Mings knew full well that allowing Silva to carry the ball into the box would invite disaster; his top priority was halting the advance.
Just as Mings reached the edge of the area, Silva casually flicked the ball with his right foot. T
Thump.
The ball dropped perfectly into the left inside channel of the penalty box.
The Brazilian forward, Gabriel Jesus, controlled it cleanly with his instep and unleashed a venomous shot!
It was so fast that goalkeeper Lovre Kalinić barely had time to blink, let alone react.
Fortunately for the home side, Jesus aimed a fraction too wide.
The ball rattled hard against the post before bouncing clear.
Aston Villa had narrowly escaped.
"That was close," Martin Tyler noted on the Sky Sports broadcast, exhaling a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
"That goalpost is truly the savior for Villa. Kalinić should go bow to that post right now."
"With just a slight push from Manchester City, Aston Villa's defense crumbled," Gary Neville added, analyzing the replay. "They simply can't keep up with City's rhythm. If this continues, conceding a goal is just a matter of time."
On the Sky Sports live Twitter feed, fans were growing increasingly pessimistic about Aston Villa's chances.
[Villa's defense is getting carved open already.]
[City is playing on a different level. We can't keep up.]
[That post just saved our entire season.]
[It's only a matter of time before they score. We need to wake up.]
Down on the touchline, Dean Smith was growing restless.
Pacing his technical area, he barked urgent instructions at his players, frantically waving them to drop back and fortify their own half.
In the following minutes, apart from striker Tammy Abraham, the Aston Villa players began actively retreating to set up a defensive block.
Five minutes later, Manchester City's attack surged forward once again, this time through the center.
The player driving forward with the ball was İlkay Gündoğan. The German international has always been a key figure for City.
Whenever the team faces an attacking impasse and struggles to break down a low block, Gündoğan manages to find pockets of space with his late forward runs.
In addition to scoring crucial goals, his primary responsibility is serving as the metronome for the team's transition between defense and attack.
Most of Manchester City's attacks flow through him.
Dean Smith was well aware of this danger. Seeing Gündoğan receive the ball, he anxiously directed his players to pressure him.
Mile Jedinak, John McGinn, and Theodore Bjorn simultaneously charged toward the German midfielder to close the space.
Gündoğan stayed composed.
Instead of holding onto the ball and inviting the tackle, he delivered a precise, sweeping through pass to an unmarked Bernardo Silva.
Without missing a beat, Silva played a first-time pass out to Riyad Mahrez on the right flank.
Mahrez received the ball with a velvety touch. As Manchester City's explosive winger, he went into full attack mode the second the ball grazed his boot.
Taking a touch with his left foot, he surged forward along the right touchline.
Aston Villa's full-back Neil Taylor and Jack Grealish quickly closed in, desperate to stop him from breaking through.
As a left-footed player, Mahrez's first instinct when dribbling on the right flank is always to cut inside, and this time was no exception.
With a quick, deceptive flick of his left foot, he accelerated, slipping right through the narrow gap between Taylor and Grealish to complete the breakthrough.
"What a player," Neville murmured as the winger drove centrally. "Even under pressure from two defenders, Mahrez still manages to find a way through."
Just as Neville spoke, Mahrez dropped his shoulder and unleashed a shot. A beautiful, curling arc flew toward the Aston Villa goal.
This time, there would be no help from the goalpost. Mahrez's shot was destined for the far top corner of the net.
Goalkeeper Kalinić stretched his arm as far as he could in mid-air, but the strike was too precise.
He couldn't reach it.
"OH, THAT IS PURE MAGIC FROM RIYAD MAHREZ!!!" Martin Tyler's voice soared through the broadcast, capturing the sheer brilliance of the moment.
"HE FINDS THE FAR CORNER WITH A CURLING MASTERPIECE! A DEVASTATING FINISH, AND MANCHESTER CITY DRAW FIRST BLOOD AT VILLA PARK!"
"The Algerian winger uses that trademark individual skill to cut inside and score," Tyler continued, letting the roar of the away fans wash over the microphone.
"Even when every defender in the stadium knows exactly what he wants to do, they still can't stop him."
Neville nodded in agreement. "He has contributed nine goals and eight assists for Manchester City now. It makes him such a vital piece of Pep Guardiola's puzzle. Now that City has taken the lead, the pressure shifts heavily onto Aston Villa. They have to find a way to push forward and respond."
After the restart, just as Neville predicted, the Aston Villa players began actively trying to attack the Manchester City goal.
However, their efforts struggled to find any openings under City's suffocating high press.
The Villa midfielders could manage at most three passes before the fourth was snatched away by a sky-blue shirt.
In the 15th minute, after regaining possession deep in their own half, Guardiola's team launched a ruthless counterattack.
Gündoğan looked up and pinged a glorious long switch of play, finding Raheem Sterling in miles of space on the left flank.
The winger was ready to unleash his pace!
"Sterling finds himself in acres of space," Tyler called as the attack developed. "He receives the ball on his favored left side, takes a heavy touch forward, and uses his sheer pace to burn right past the Aston Villa full-back."
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator