Manchester City Vs. Aston Villa, Halftime: Three First Half Goals Has City In Commanding Lead

Mario Balotelli has been awarded the start at Eastlands today as Roberto Mancini elected to rest Carlos Tevez in favor of the homesick striker Balotelli. While Mancini also has been forced to make a number of changes because of the thick and fast fixture list over the course of the Holiday season, his City side are only an hour or so from reaching the summit of the Premier League, at least until Manchester United’s match against Birmingham City which will take place later today.

Within the first ten minutes, Balotelli won and converted a penalty for City to put the home side up 1-0 early on. U.S. and Aston Villa defender Eric Lichaj brought down Balotelli in the game’s seventh minute and Balotelli cooly converted from the spot. Moments later, City were awarded a corner kick when a Yaya Toure shot was deflected out by Carlos Cuellar.

Adam Johnson stepped up to take the corner and City defender Joleon Lescott attacked the ball and headed it past Barry Bannan who was to the right of Villa keeper Brad Friedel on the line. Although the linesman immediately whistled that the ball did in fact cross the line, replays show that Bannan looked to have cleared the ball before it actually did.

Regardless, the goal was given and Aston Villa were left with quite the large hole to climb out of as City pursue three points at home and top spot.

Just as Villa were ruing their luck, City struck again to make the score 3-0 20 or so minutes before halftime. Balotelli grabbed his second of the day, a tap in, after Brad Friedel was only able to parry a David Silva shot into his path for the easiest of finishes.

While a full 45 minutes is still left to play, Villa have shown very little in attack and look to be without a plan B.