Maresca ‘not worried’ by Guéhi’s gaffes as Aston Villa end City’s flawless start

Enzo Maresca is not concerned by the form of Marc Guéhi despite the defender costing his side three goals in the past two Premier League matches, the Manchester City manager said after seeing his side lose in the league for the first time this season.

Nicolas Jackson’s double earned Aston Villa a 2-1 victory at Villa Park after Guéhi was unable to control the ball for the opener. Instead he spilled it into the path of John McGinn, who played it to Jackson, allowing him to score the first of two goals. The defender was then substituted at half-time having been booked on 32 minutes. Guéhi’s errors allowed Ipswich to score twice against City last weekend.

“No, I’m not worried about Marc at all,” Maresca said. “I know that he’s played every minute since the season started with us, with the international team, so it’s not easy. But again, the change was also because he was on a yellow card and in the way we want to be aggressive, sometimes to have one yellow card can be dangerous, but I’m not worried at all.”

City had 15 shots to Villa’s eight as they dropped points for the first time this season. Zion Suzuki made a number of important saves to keep City at bay in the second half, and Villa scored with their only two shots on target.

“I think we deserved more from the game, for the amount of chances that we created and for the chances that we conceded,” Maresca said. “We lost because probably we have not been clinical enough in their box and sometimes when you concede the first goal because of the mistake, the second goal again comes from transition in 45 minutes. It’s difficult to avoid that every time, but we learn from the game and we try to move on and to improve.”

Jackson’s double takes him to seven goals since his move from Chelsea. He was a constant threat to the City centre-backs, who were unable to cope with his speed, physical presence and clinical finishing. Unai Emery said of his forward: “He’s very demanding of himself to improve things. Today he scored two goals, in the last matches he scored goals – but at the beginning of the season, what happened to us was more difficult and he was shooting a lot of balls over the corner.

“Now, he’s getting better at shooting. He’s working fantastically tactically, he’s understanding as well where we need him. Today, he scored two goals, but the most important thing is how he did his work, his task.”

His fellow summer signing Suzuki challenged Jackson for the player of the match award and is starting to show why Villa were so keen to acquire him as Emiliano Martínez’s replacement. Matty Cash told TNT Sport: “He’s brilliant, his first session when he came in, in the possession drill I thought we’d signed a midfielder. His vision is unbelievable, he catches crosses really well which as a full-back is a dream.”