Manchester City suffered their first defeat since August, losing 1-0 to Aston Villa courtesy of a first-half strike from Matty Cash at Villa Park. Nico Gonzalez was only fit enough for the bench after his knock in Villarreal, leading to Tijjani Reijnders starting in holding midfield for the first time this season. The visitors started brightly but soon succumbed to pressure from the home team, who scored through Cash and looked to add another.

City improved in the second half but failed to find an equaliser, with Erling Haaland's late effort being ruled out for offside against Omar Marmoush, missing an opportunity to keep the gap to Premier League leaders Arsenal to three points after Liverpool's defeat at Brentford. Here are the player ratings from Express Sport...

Donnarumma: Powerless to prevent the goal and made a decent save when Sancho broke through. Had little else to do. 6.

Nunes: Showed some solid defending but misplaced too many passes, putting City under unnecessary pressure. 5.

Stones: Failed to match his midweek performance and was caught out several times having pushed up only for City to lose possession. 5.

Dias: Managed reasonably well considering...