City hammer Villa as Watford exit relegation zone

Manchester City humiliated a sorry Aston Villa side in Birmingham, as Watford leapfrogged the Villains out of the relegation zone with yet another win.

Pep Guardiola's men thrashed the home side to take a 4-0  lead at break thanks to a brace from  Riyad Mahrez, as well as goals from Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus. 

The Algerian forward opened the scoring inside 20 minutes, with his tradmark dribble in from the right hand side before calmly slotting into the bottom corner, and a few minutes later, he added another when capitalising from poor defending by Villa debutant Danny Drinkwater.

The third goal came from Kevin de Bruyne feeding Sergio Aguero and before the break there was another trademark, this time De Bruyne whipping a stunning far-post cross in behind the Villa defence, for an easy Gabriel Jesus tap-in.

No mercy from the Citizens

After the break, Aguero added two more goals to complete his hat-trick which sees the Argentine overtake Thierry Henry to become the highest-scoring foreign player in Premier League history.

ANOTHER RECORD BROKEN!!!

🦁 0-5 🔵 #ManCity #AVLMCI pic.twitter.com/JN7BMgquZI

— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 12, 2020

The Villains scored a consolation goal through an Anwar El Ghazi penalty but a terrible day for Villa sees them move into the Premier League's bottom three behind Watford.

©Getty / 5021154

Watford move out of relegation zone

Watford continued their incredible run under new manager Nigel Pearson with a comfortable 3-0 win over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

Abdoulaye Doucoure gave Watford a first-half lead, capitalising on an error from goalkeeper Mark Travers to fire home the opener from six yards.

In the second-half, Troy Deeney doubled Watford's advantage from an Ismaila Sarr cross, and in stoppage time Roberto Pereyra started the celebrations, as a penalty box scramble fell to the Argentinian, who controlled his volley perfectly past Travers after Andre Gray's shot had been cleared off the line by Ryan Fraser.

The Hornets have now collected 13 points from six games in the Premier League under Nigel Pearson, collecting four of their five wins. 

🐝That's now 4 wins in Nigel Pearson's first 7 games as Watford boss, with the club only picking up a single victory before him.

Playmaker takes a second look at his impact at Leicester and questions why it took so long for him to return.

👉https://t.co/S4vWlEa9oS👈#BOUWAT pic.twitter.com/CLHcVH92nu

— playmakerstats (@playmaker_EN) January 12, 2020