Unai Emery’s Villa, enjoying their best season for years, oozed with confidence and dominated the match throughout, leapfrogging City to third in the table.

After squandering a hatful of chances, Villa’s winner came in the 74th minute when Bailey took the ball just past the halfway line, ran at City’s defence, and unleashed a shot that hit Ruben Dias’ foot to beat goalkeeper Ederson.

Minutes later, Douglas Luiz struck the post for the hosts, who could have won by a larger margin in a surprisingly one-sided match, to the noisy delight of the majority at Villa Park.

The result left Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on 30 points after 15 matches – six points behind leaders Arsenal – and without a win in their last four Premier League matches.

Aston Villa moved up to third on 32 points, two behind Liverpool and four behind Arsenal.