SOCCER ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Aston Villa 1 Manchester City 1MANCHESTER CITY wrestled a draw from a match in which they were literally responsible for their own troubles. The manager, Mark Hughes, would have felt a twinge of foreboding when he sanctioned the €5.4 million sale of Richard Dunne and the defender duly scored Villa's opener. Still, the visitors did show powers of recovery on a night when they could have been beaten. Villa, for their part, can be satisfied with having imposed themselves on visitors who are now fourth in the table.

Considering the lapses experienced by the habitual top four the question may not be how good Manchester City are in theory but how good they would need to be if that cartel is to be broken. Mark Hughes has faced up to some hard questions and Micah Richards, in the wake of a mauling at Old Trafford, has been demoted to the bench, with Pablo Zabaleta taking over at right-back, but this match soon confirmed that City continue to be a work in progress.

The schlock element of Dunne’s headed goal against his former employers should not distract anyone from noticing how bad the visitors’ defending was. Assigning the comparatively slight Gareth Barry, who had spent much of his career at Villa, to mark Dunne at set-pieces ensured a mismatch.

Dunne overwhelmed him to such an extent the midfielder’s feet hardly left the ground as his opponent connected forcefully with Stephen Warnock’s corner after a quarter-of-an-hour. The scorer declined to celebrate a goal against his former employers.

A match of this type invited Villa to confirm they will not settle for residence in the middle of the table. Checking City was the first objective since Hughes had chosen to be adventurous, with Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips all on the field at kick-off.

There was still a vagueness to the pressure applied before the interval and ingenuity was absent then. Barry might have been expected to orchestrate moves but his use of possession was sometimes wasteful. When he did look as if he could contribute it was from a set piece after 41 minutes. Barry flighted it from the right for Adebayor but Brad Friedel had no trouble in tipping the header over the bar. By that stage, the principal alarm had come from a random event. Tevez’s effort had ricocheted off Adebayor in the 29th minute and Friedel would have been helpless had the deflection not flown straight to him.

The nature of the match was altering by then. City had begun to find a pattern in their play and Villa appeared to feel the strain of constantly rushing to plug gaps. Still, they held firm until the interval. Villa had made every effort to ensure they were worth watching. As early as the second minute a backheel by Gabriel Agbonlahor had called the City goalkeeper Shay Given into action.

Having had a pause to regroup at the interval O’Neill’s players were spirited once more. Hughes had to be strenuous in his efforts to seize the initiative. When the defensive midfielder Nigel de Jong went off after 50 minutes his place was taken by the more creative Stephen Ireland. City, however, had a spell of looking befuddled. Wright-Phillips was even cautioned for bringing down Warnock. With 59 minutes, Dunne could have had another goal, but his header from James Milner’s corner went wide. There was a certain consternation about Hughes’s side then, as if they had assumed they would dominate while searching for a leveller.

There were only 20 minutes or so left when they started to busy themselves around Villa’s penalty area again. Wright-Phillips fed Ireland and his pass picked out Adebayor. The cut-back was converted by Bellamy. City, then, resembled the teams they hope to challenge. All the same, this match was a reminder of how tough it will be to enter the elite.

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ASTON VILLA:Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Milner, Petrov, Sidwell, Ashley Young (Reo-Coker 81), Agbonlahor, Carew (Heskey 69). Subs Not Used: Guzan, Delph, Shorey, Beye, Gardner. Booked: Petrov.

MAN CITY: Given, Zabaleta, Lescott, Toure, Bridge, De Jong (Ireland 50), Barry, Wright-Phillips, Tevez (Santa Cruz 68), Bellamy, Adebayor. Subs Not Used: Taylor, Richards, Sylvinho, Johnson, Petrov. Booked: De Jong, Wright-Phillips.

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).