Aston Villa the latest side to defeat Pep Guardiola's struggling Manchester City
Jacob Reacts City Guardiola Defeat: On King/pa Manager Another Pic: (left) Manchester Pep The Touchline Wire
Manchester City continue to show no signs of being able to stem their stunning fall from grace after the latest hugely damaging defeat for Pep Guardiola's fallen heroes.
It's now one win in 12 games in an increasingly forlorn title defence as City succumbed with little discernible fight for only the second time in 18 meetings to a side they have regularly beaten with ease for more than a decade.
A fourth goal in as many games from Jhon Duran helped Unai Emery's effervescent team leapfrog their vanquished opponents, who dropped to sixth and will soon require a telescope to keep track of the battle to replace them as the pre-eminent side in English football.
City were unable to cope with Youri Tielemans' visionary promptings and the midfielder was involved in both his side's goals, ex-City forward Morgan Rogers doubling the advantage in the 65th minute with a calm left foot finish into the bottom corner past Stefan Ortega.
Villa were good value for the win, and could have scored three times in the first five minutes in a shambolic start from City, who looked off the pace from the off after making six changes from the side that came out on the wrong end of the Manchester derby.
John McGinn dispossessed a ponderous Josko Gvardiol to put Duran through inside 20 seconds, only for the forward to shoot from outside the area when he had several more yards to run into, allowing Ortega to save.
From the resulting corner, Ortega, in for Ederson who Guardiola revealed 'didn't feel good' produced a stunning save to keep out Pau Torres' glancing near post header with the help of the underside of the crossbar. Seven-eights of the ball had crossed the goal-line before Ortega applied a crucial glove, but not enough to break the deadlock.
As Villa forced four corners in the first five minutes against punch-drunk opponents, Amadou Onana should have done better with a near post header which the midfielder failed to get on target.
The pressure eventually told after 16 minutes, thanks to an exquisite 30-yard Tielemans pass from his own half which released Morgan Rogers through on goal. The in-form forward could well have scored, but unselfishly squared for Duran to sweep the ball left-footed past Ortega from a dozen yards.
City's travails were summed up by a wild Jack Grealish shot that posed more threat to the assistant referee than Emi Martinez's goal as it dribbled out for a throw-in. The former Villa man, who was roundly booed by the fans who once idolised him, has gone for more than a year spanning 36 games without finding the net in domestic football.
Phil Foden fared slightly better than the hapless Grealish, deftly swapping passes with Rico Lewis in the Villa box before forcing Martinez to divert a low angled drive that was destined for the bottom corner. CIty's first decent chance had taken more than half an hour to fashion.
The interval arrived at the wrong time for the visitors, halting the modest momentum they were starting to finally build, which almost provided an equaliser when Gvardiol headed wastefully over after beating Martinez to a Grealish cross chipped into the near post.
Still it was Villa carving out the more presentable chances, and Matty Cash was guilty of thrashing a shot from a narrow angle into the side netting with Boubacar Kamara unmarked in front of goal at the culmination of another Tielemans-inspired counter-attack.
Rogers struck the foot of Ortega's right-hand post from 10 yards after City failed to deal with some intricate build-up play. He wasn't to be denied for long, bursting forward 40 yards, swapping passes with McGinn as Tielemans created space with an intelligent run, before thumping the second confidently into the bottom corner.
Sub Ollie Watkins spurned a late chance to make it three, and Foden belatedly halved the deficit deep in stoppage-time after a mistake from Lucas Digne but it had long since been game over, a ninth defeat of the season for City and the prospect of more sleepless nights for Guardiola in his increasingly futile attempts to stop the rot.
Martinez 8; Cash 8, Konsa 8, Torres 8, Digne 8; Tielemans 9, Kamara 7, Onana 8; McGinn 8, Duran 8 (Watkins 80, 6), Rogers 9 (Buendia 90, 6).
Ortega 6; Lewis 6, Stones 4 (Walker 46, 4), Akanji 4, Gvardiol 4; Gundogan 5 (Savinho 73, 5), Kovacic 3 (Doku 84, 5); Silva 4, Foden 6, Grealish 5; Haaland 2.
Peter Bankes.