Man City were pretty good in their patient, and eventually dominant, win at home to Aston Villa last night. Below are the box scores from that win that leaves Man City just a point short of a 2nd PL title in 3 years.
Basic Numbers
Numbers pulled from whoscored.com.
Across the board Man City were pretty much dominant over the opposition: pass volume, pass success and most importantly, shots.
Shots Battle
The above chart shows when the two teams registered their shot attempts. City enjoyed an early flourish in the first fifteen minutes, then a quiet spell before consistently registering shots from around the 40th minutes mark. Villa, in turn, were awfully quiet: more unable than unwilling to attempt any serious number of shots.
Shot Positions
Image from statszone.com
6 of City's 18 shots came from outside the area with the rest clustered around the penalty spot. Despite Villa's deep, shelled defense City were patient and able to break through, or pass behind, the wall of Villa shirts and fashion quality shooting opportunities.
Player Positions
This image is pulled from whoscored.com and it shows the average position of the Man City players when on the ball (not sure how they factor in subs, I guess they are all rolled into the one position).
Kompany played sweeper, Demichelis as the ball carrying distributor with Garcia holding. This allowed the fullbacks - Kolarov and Zabaleta - to really push and provide width and ball support in the final third of the pitch. Milner stretched the pitch, both horizontally and vertically, by staying so wide and high, whilst Nasri (left wing) and Silva buzzed around Dzeko.
Nasri's central wanderings can, at times, leave Man City exposed against dangerous counter attacking teams but Nasri, and Man City, are at their best when the Frenchman plays in close proximity to Silva. It's a fearsome duo to defend against for both players posses the feet, the passing range, the ability to never give the ball away and tremendously high panic thresholds in the congested final third. Facing a player with those attributes is mighty difficult for defenses. Facing two of those players who decide to play the majority of the game within ten yards of each other is nigh on impossible to quell for the full 90 minutes.
A dominant performance in a pressure game.