Maresca ‘not worried’ about Guéhi as Aston Villa beat Manchester City 2-1 at Villa Park
Aston Villa defeated Manchester City 2-1 at Villa Park in a Premier League match on 24 October 2026, ending City's unbeaten start to the league season, and City manager Enzo Maresca said he was not worried about Marc Guéhi.
Nicolas Jackson scored twice to secure Villa's victory after Guéhi failed to control the ball for the opener, spilling it into the path of John McGinn, who played it to Jackson for the first goal. Guéhi was booked on 32 minutes and was taken off at half-time; the defender has now been involved in errors that have led to three goals over the past two league matches, including two goals allowed against Ipswich last weekend.
“No, I’m not worried about Marc at all,” Maresca said. “I know that he’s played every minute since the season started with us, with the international team, so it’s not easy. But again, the change was also because he was on a yellow card and in the way we want to be aggressive, sometimes to have one yellow card can be dangerous, but I’m not worried at all.” City registered 15 shots to Villa’s eight but dropped points for the first time this season.
“I think we deserved more from the game, for the amount of chances that we created and for the chances that we conceded,” Maresca said. “We lost because probably we have not been clinical enough in their box and sometimes when you concede the first goal because of the mistake, the second goal again comes from transition in 45 minutes. It’s difficult to avoid that every time, but we learn from the game and we try to move on and to improve.” Zion Suzuki made a number of important saves in the second half, and Villa scored with their only two shots on target.
Jackson’s double took him to seven goals since his move from Chelsea, and he troubled City’s centre-backs with his pace, physicality and finishing. Unai Emery praised the forward: “He’s very demanding of himself to improve things. Today he scored two goals, in the last matches he scored goals – but at the beginning of the season, what happened to us was more difficult and he was shooting a lot of balls over the corner. “Now, he’s getting better at shooting. He’s working fantastically tactically, he’s understanding as well where we need him. Today, he scored two goals, but the most important thing is how he did his work, his task.”
Villa’s summer signing Zion Suzuki pushed Jackson for the player of the match award and, according to the report, is starting to show why Villa wanted him as Emiliano Martínez’s replacement. Matty Cash said of Suzuki: “He’s brilliant, his first session when he came in, in the possession drill I thought we’d signed a midfielder. His vision is unbelievable, he catches crosses really well which as a full-back is a dream.”
The defeat ended Manchester City’s flawless start to the Premier League season and represented the club’s first dropped points.