Man City took a huge step in the direction of the Champions League qualifying when Jeremy Doku came off the bank to set up the 94th minute winner of Matheus Nunes in the 2-1 win against Aston Villa on Tuesday evening.
The decision to record the Belgian winger Doku turned out to be an inspired step for Man City Manager Pep Guardiola. It was a replacement for his counterpart – Villa -Baas Unai Emery – who, however, led to a completely different reaction from one of his own players, Ross Barkley.
Man City took a seventh minute ahead through Bernardo Silva before Marcus Rashford made an appointment for the visitors to the place.
While the tension in the last minutes a crucial competition in the battle for European qualification, Emery was already twice used to his bank – first of all to bring Axel Disasi and John McGinn and then turn to Marco Asensio and Ollie Watkins.
With four minutes of the 90 minutes, Emery rolled the dice for the last time and the Netherlands asked Donyell to replace Morgan Rogers.
Fans saw the reaction of a big eyes to Barkley to the decision of his manager. The midfielder, who has been covered 33 times by England, looked shocked when he shook his head from the replacements' bank.
Malen had already scored a goals for Villa this month, against Brighton and Southampton, but could not repeat the trick in the Etihad Stadium.
Barkley did not start a competition for the club for three months because he was set aside by a knee ligament injury he picked up in the FA Cup victory of the FA Cup on West Ham.
The playing time of the 31-year-old has since been limited to two late replacement performances this month to Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle.
The result moves Man City to third place in the Premier League table, while Villa is in the seventh, two points on the last Champions League spot of the fifth and more game than their rivals.
Villa gets the chance to place the disappointment of Tuesday evening behind them when they travel to Wembley to Crystal Palace in the semi -final of Saturday FA Cup.
The man City of Guardiola is opposed to Nottingham Forest the next day in the other semi -final match.