Brad Guzan hopes Aston Villa have reached “turning point” in dismal season

A big miss from Kevin De Bruyne as the cross comes in and from close range De Bruyne can’t sort his feet out and puts the ball wide with the goal at his mercy, he should have put City ahead there.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Souness said City failed to take the initiative in the first half and paid the price in the second, as bottom-of-the-table Villa grew in confidence and earned the draw.

Full of pace and innate talent, Green looks set for a bright future at Villa, and while he will be bemoaning his bad luck for now, that should not prevent Garde from giving him that elusive first-team chance further down the line.

– The hosts kept their first Premier League clean sheet since the opening day of the season and first at home this term.

Both teams struggled in the final-third with Villa’s Jordan Ayew left isolated upfront and City having to make do without a recognised striker once Wilfried Bony had been replaced after 25 minutes with a hamstring injury. He was quite okay in the training sessions and I thought he could be useful for the team. Jesus Navas came on for the injured Ivorian, and his pace quickly challenged Villa’s back line. They worked very hard.

But Remi Garde’s reinvigorated side provided City with a more obstinate task than expected, as the Clarets, captained by former City man Micah Richards, earned a point despite conceding numerous chances to a wasteful City side. “We now have time to recover important players and I think that is important”. “In a fortnight it can be a different team”, said Garde, referring to Villa’s next fixture. “No, always when you have a new manager you have a few reaction”.

At the Emirates, Arsenal fell behind to a 32nd-minute goal from Spurs’ Harry Kane, who got on the end of a clever ball over the top from Danny Rose and went past Laurent Koscielny, mistakenly trying to play the England forward offside, before rolling a shot across Petr Cech.

City boss Manuel Pellegrini was disappointed with the draw: “We’re disappointed with the draw”. I think we did enough to win the game.

Following complaints from the City players, Villa take the corner and Gestede nearly scores! The 29-year-old has started only 54 Premier League games for Villa and scored only five goals in all competitions. Two or three times we were very unlucky. “We have to try and work without them”.

City have won seven of their last eight games, including a 3-1 success at Seville on Tuesday that saw them into the last 16 of the Champions League.