Manchester City climbed to second place in the English Premier League following a hard fought 2-0 victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Aston Villa, who did well to contain the defending Premier League champions for most of the game, suffered a defeat late on as Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero scored two goals in quick succession in the dying minutes of the game.
The game started with City on the front foot as Nathan Baker made a very good block to deny Toure in the sixth minute of the game.
Five minutes later Aleksandar Kolarov came even closer to breaking the deadlock as his well struck effort was denied by the post.
More chances followed for City near the half hour mark but Aguero and Edin Dzeko were unable to hit the target.
Despite the Citizens launching attack after attack on Villa's defence, the hosts did not lose their nerve as the first half ended goalless.
City nearly took the lead in the opening stages of the first half when James Milner picked out Aguero with an excellent pass. The Argentinean unleashed an effort, but his shot struck the base of the post.
Immediately after, at the other end, Villa threatened for the first time in the game, but a brilliant last ditch tackle from Pablo Zabaleta stopped Kieran Richardson from scoring.
The Villans got another chance at the hour mark when Tom Cleverley whipped a good cross towards the box. However, Andreas Weimann could not get enough of a connection.
Just as it looked like the match was heading towards a goalless draw, Yaya Toure broke the deadlock in the 82th minute. The Ivorian, after receiving the ball from Fernando, bulldozed his way past Villa's defence, before drilling an effort past Guzan into the bottom left corner of the net.
City inflicted further pain on Villa as they doubled their advantage through Aguero in the 88th minute of the game. Milner picked out Aguero with a good pass and the Argentine did brilliantly to hold off Baker and Philippe Senderos before smashing the ball home from outside the box.
