When you are as expressive on the touchline as Pep Guardiola, visual evidence can be enough to gauge the importance of an occasion. Make no mistake, this win was big. "You don't have to be a scientist to realise that we were playing against Aston Villa,

Manchester City defeated top-five rivals Aston Villa on Tuesday night to take a huge step towards Champions League qualification. Pep Guardiola’s side opened the scoring after only seven minutes, after Emi Martinez failed to hold a Bernardo Silva shot and let it squirm past him.