The media also responded to Manchester City being eliminated by Manchester United in the FA Cup one-eighth game, because everyone knows that this season, Manchester City’s biggest goal is to enter the top four of the league. The FA Cup was eliminated and the 'more decent' way was eliminated by a penalty kick. For Manchester City, it may be a good thing. In this way, Manchester City can focus all their energy on the league.

On February 28, 2009, Manchester City welcomed Aston Villa at home.

Manchester City's home game with Aston Villa is also recognized by the media as one of the focus games of this round.

Aston Villa is now ranked third in the league and Manchester City is ranked fifth. Such a showdown is the well-deserved focus of a round of leagues.

After Manchester City introduced stars such as Zhang Yang and Modric, the season had not yet begun, and it caused a stir in the Premier League. Although the media and fans were a little unhappy, it was not too surprised that Manchester City was rich, and some people were the capital. Although the media and some people have been criticizing that Manchester City is a nouveau riche, no one minds that their team has become a nouveau riche. What is the battle for modern football? To put it bluntly, spelling is financial resources!

If Manchester City's performance is very good, then Aston Villa's performance is perfect!

From the sixth place last season to the 26th round of the league this season, being able to rank third is just a small step for teams in other leagues, but in the Premier League, this is a big step. Because in the eyes of many people, the concept of the top four in the Premier League is no different from the four giants, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Liverpool are almost the fixed top four in the Premier League! However, now, Aston Villa has successfully broken people's fixed thinking.

Although Aston Villa ranked 6th in the league last season, the score difference between Liverpool, 4th, was as high as 16 points, and the difference between giants and ordinary clubs is obvious. Looking back at the first three seasons, except for the "four major families", no team in the Premier League has been able to appear in the Champions League in recent years. But so far, Aston Villa has scored 51 points, ranking third in the Premier League, not only far ahead of Arsenal, but even Chelsea has been trampled by them.

Of course, the current 51 points does not mean anything. The stability of the team is the premise for whether a team is called a giant. Although Aston Villa cannot compete with the "four major families" of the Premier League, this season, in addition to losing to Chelsea away, O'Neal's team has 1 win and 3 draws, and is no longer at a disadvantage in the face of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. Moreover, so far, Aston Villa has not lost 13 games in the league, and only Manchester United and Manchester City are qualified to compete in this result. It can be said that Aston Villa is slowly launching an attack on the traditional semi-finals.

Now, Aston Villa is the most eye-catching team in the Premier League, and Manchester City is the one who can attract more attention than them. The Times wrote an article to praise Aston Villa, which said that Aston Villa's rise was not accidental. In addition to the financial support of Chairman Lerner, head coach O'Neal made an indelible contribution.

Since O'Neal entered Villa in 2006-07, the Birmingham team's performance has been getting better and better. In the first year of O'Neal's entry, Villa ranked 11th; in the second year, Villa rose to 5 places to 6th, almost reaching the League Cup. After half of this season, Villa scored 35 points, 5 more points than the same period last season. Now he ranks first in the Premier League. O'Neal, who has produced legendary coach Claff, has indeed succeeded in Villa with a spirit of unyielding and tough means.

Of course, it is hard to cook without rice. With a good coach and a strong lineup, Villa would not have the same results as he has. And in Villa's lineup, the most important thing is captain Barry. Last summer, Barry was tempted by Liverpool to be proud of his desire, but O'Neal, who was determined to do something in this season, insisted on keeping the captain and using ruthless tricks to keep people: to raise prices outside and scare away the Red Army, and to implement three stops on Barry internally to conquer the morale. Facts have proved that O'Neal's hard hand is amazing. So far, Barry has scored 4 goals and assisted 4 times in the league, which is definitely the treasure of the town team.

In addition to Gareth Barry, O'Neal's team is also an important contributor to the team's victory: Abanglaho and Ashley Young have already made their mark, and marginal figures such as Sidwell, Milner, Luke Young, Curtis Davis, and Shawry have also "stable output" under his training. In addition, Husky, who recently joined in the winter, Aston Villa has a complete lineup and a stable morale. It is particularly worth mentioning that the attacking combination of Abanglaho and Ashley Young. So far, Abanglaho has scored 10 goals in the league and tied for third place in the scorer list. Ashley Young has become the first player to be elected the best in the month three times in a year with his performance of 5 goals and 7 assists (well, Zhang Yang is elected the best in the month three times in seven months). With such an impressive combination, what is the reason why Villa is not successful?

Although Aston Villa lost to Chelsea in the last round of the league, they are still third in the league, which also makes the team's morale still high from top to bottom!

In this round of league, facing Manchester City away, the whole team of Aston Villa can be said to be holding back their breath to take revenge! Revenge? That's right, it's revenge! In the first round of the league, Manchester City slaughtered Aston Villa four-zero at Villa Park. If Aston Villa performs poorly this season, then that miserable defeat to Manchester City is nothing, but the problem is that Aston Villa's performance this season is simply perfect. They are now ranked third in the league, trampling Arsenal and Chelsea under their feet. In this case, in the eyes of the entire team, the game that lost to Manchester City at home was so dazzling!

Therefore, in this game, Aston Villa's whole team gritted their teeth and wanted to take revenge. They wanted to kill Manchester City away. On the one hand, they wanted to consolidate their position in the third place in the standings, and on the other hand, they wanted to take revenge! Avenge the big revenge of a home defeat of zero to four in the first round of the season! That defeat was a thorn in the heart of the Aston Villa people who are now full of glory. They must kill Manchester City to be in a happy mood.

Arsenal head coach Wenger cheered O'Neal's team before the game, saying that Aston Villa has every hope of creating miracles this season again... The implication is that Aston Villa's miracle will continue from Manchester Municipal Stadium?

Now, Aston Villa ranks third, with 51 points, Chelsea ranks fourth, with 50 points, Manchester City ranks fifth, with 48 points, Arsenal ranks sixth, with 45 points. Obviously, in Arsenal's eyes, they must first cross the level closest to Manchester City to be closer to the top four. Once Manchester City wins Aston Villa, the situation of the top five will be even more chaotic. Of course, for Arsenal, if Manchester City tied with Aston Villa, it would be the most perfect result.

Aston Villa's entire team wants revenge, but Aston Villa coach O'Neal was cautious when talking about this game against Manchester City. He said that his team's goal is to take a point away from Manchester Municipal Stadium.

Manchester Municipal Stadium is full, and this game is of great significance to Manchester City's goal of entering the top four in the league. In the eyes of Manchester City fans, although Chelsea is now ranked fourth, there will definitely be a Chelsea in the top four. Then, another top four quota will be between Aston Villa, Manchester City and Arsenal. Aston Villa, who now has three more points than Manchester City, is obviously Manchester City's biggest opponent at the moment!

In this game, Manchester City's goal is very clear, that is, to win the game!

Before the game began, the starting list of both sides was announced on the large screen of Manchester Municipal Stadium.

Manchester City (4-4-2): 37-Given/5-Sabaleta, 22-Dunn, 33-Konpani, 25-Bridge/8-Wright Phillips, 7-Modric, 34-De Jong, 11-Elano/10-Zhang Yang, 9-Robinho;

Aston Villa (4-3-3): 1-Friedel/2-Luke Young, 16-Knight, 15-Cortis Davis, 24-Cuela/19-Petrov, 6-Garres Barry, 7-Ashley Young/8-Milner, 18-Husky, 11-Abonrajo;

Although Aston Villa coach O'Neal was very kind before the game and was very happy that he could take a point from Manchester Municipal Stadium, he looked at his arrangement and sent three forwards to show that this person was insincere. He also thought about killing Manchester City away, avenging the home defeat in the first round of the season, and at the same time consolidated the team's ranking in the standings.

O'Neal came with ambition and goals for this game!

But just 3 minutes into the game, Zhang Yang gave Aston Villa a blow. This game was the last league game of Zhang Yang's plan to "Save Ronaldo" and his last chance. For this game, Zhang Yang has not been idle at all these days. He trained wildly in the dungeon, trying to arm himself to his teeth!

After the game started, Zhang Yang did not delay for a second, and he immediately entered the game state!

It can be said that Zhang Yang gave his all in this game from the second he started with the whistle, and every minute is precious! He wants to work hard to achieve a feat in this game against Aston Villa!

Zhang Yang seemed very excited at the beginning of the game. Less than a minute after receiving a pass from Robinho, he forced Aston Villa goalkeeper Friedel to save the ball.

In the subsequent corner kick, Zhang Yang squeezed out Knight who was guarding him and headed a very powerful header. Fortunately, Aston Villa, another central defender, Davis, rescued the ball on the goal line, otherwise they would have conceded the ball.

Zhang Yang's two consecutive shots sounded the clarion call for Manchester City's offense.

Friedel's wonderful save and Aston Villa's central defender Knight's rescue on the goal line only allowed them to protect one more minute.

In the minute, Elano's long shot was saved by Aston Villa goalkeeper Friedel, and Robinho's shot, which followed up with a supplementary shot, hit Aston Villa's central defender Curtis Davis's leg rolled outside the penalty area...

Zhang Yang rushed into the penalty area when Ellano shot a long time. When Robinho made a follow-up shot, Zhang Yang thought Robinho must have had this shot. However, after Robinho made a foot, Zhang Yang knew it was broken. Robinho's shot was wrong and he might be saved.

Sure enough, Robinho's shot was saved by Friedel and rolled aside. Zhang Yang, who was prepared for a long time, rushed to the front of the football like a clever fox. Facing the tackle from Aston Villa defender Knight, he skillfully pulled the football horizontally. After avoiding the tackle, he raised his right foot and shot hard directly!

It is difficult to shoot at this angle and use normal footwork to hit the football in. Zhang Yang chose to shoot vigorously and shoot the football very high, which just happened to avoid the second save of Aston Villa goalkeeper Friedel!

After the football was drawn, it flew towards the goal like a cannon shell out. Aston Villa goalkeeper Friedel was indeed going to get up and save, but Zhang Yang had been guarding him for a long time to save. The shot was high enough. Friedel had not been able to get up completely yet. The football was already roaring and flew in from the upper right corner of the goal, knocking the net high!

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!”

"IT'S...GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAL!!!SUPPER-GOAL!! Manchester City led 1:0! Just 3 minutes into the game, ZHANG scored a goal. His condition today is really outstanding! O'Neal made an offensive formation, obviously trying to take three points away from Manchester Municipal Stadium, but he seemed to have forgotten to be careful!" Eddie Gray shouted loudly, cheering for Manchester City's goal. While cheering for the goal, he did not forget to tease the head coach Aston Villa.

When everyone saw O'Neal's starting lineup, they knew that O'Neal came for three points. However, at Manchester Municipal Stadium, it is not easy to play offensive football and win Manchester City!

Before Zhang Yang came to Manchester City, the most criticized thing about Manchester City was their "away bug" and their poor performance away. But don't forget that the twin brother of "away bug" was the "home dragon". At that time, Manchester City was very difficult to deal with at home. Now, with Zhang Yang's Manchester City, their municipal stadium cannot be said to be the most terrifying home court in the Premier League, but it is definitely a devil's stadium!

O'Neal didn't think about strengthening his defense, but instead wanted to play offensive football. Now, the game has only been going on for three minutes and he has suffered a blow!

After scoring, Zhang Yang waved his fist hard. What surprised everyone was that Zhang Yang did not start celebrating the goal, but rushed into Aston Villa's goal, picked up the football, ran to the center circle, and he wanted to kick off as soon as possible!

This shocked everyone. Some fans subconsciously looked at the time on the big screen. Yes, the game had just begun, and Manchester City was leading by 1-0. Zhang Yang was so anxious to kick off the ball in the middle circle, which made them feel illusion that the game was about to end, and Manchester City was behind in the score.

Other Manchester City players were originally coming and wanted to celebrate the goal with Zhang Yang. They were also surprised to see Zhang Yang running towards the center circle with the football in his arms.

"Zhang, what's wrong, so anxious?" Wright Phillips asked.

"It's nothing." Zhang Yang said, thinking Wright Phillips asked inexplicably. This guy didn't understand why his teammates asked him yet. He just wanted to play quickly and score goals at the right time. However, his teammates didn't know that Zhang Yang's goal was to score seven goals. His teammates believed that it was to help Manchester City win and complete the task!

"Then are you?" Modric also came over and asked. He pointed to the football that Zhang Yang was holding.

"Ah--" Zhang Yang then understood what everyone was asking. He said casually, "It's nothing, I'm in a hurry to score a goal."

Aston Villa player, who was also a little inexplicable, was now heard by Zhang Yang's words, and his face turned green...

I'm sorry, what does this kid mean?!

"Afraid of scoring the goal?" Modric was also stunned and asked.

"Yes!" Zhang Yang nodded seriously while jogging to the middle circle. His expression was extremely serious.
Chapter completed!