Manuel Pellegrini asked Manchester City for nine more wins to secure the title and here was the first of them, in the end a predictably comfortable goalfest against a stricken Aston Villa.  Beating a dispirited side nailed to the bottom of the table is no guarantee a further eight games will be won, much less that the title will be heading their way, but, after three straight league defeats, City needed to stop the rot and begin consolidating their position in the top four.  Related: Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez sinks Watford to boost title charge  Their supporters will forgive Pellegrini for dreaming of a second title as long as City win enough matches to stay ahead of West Ham and Manchester United, whose form has raised the embarrassing possibility of welcoming Pep Guardiola to the club with Europa League football.  Not that the home side looked like a Champions League one for all of this game. Granted, it is unusual to face opponents of such limited ambition and content to play almost all of the game in their own half, but all City had to do was find a way past Rémi Garde’s flat back five and, for 45 frustrating minutes, they could not manage it. The first half was like a training ground exercise, and about as much fun to watch, although City were quite inventive in finding a number of different ways to threaten. Once Brad Guzan set the tone in the 11th minute, by keeping out a Sergio Agüero shot after the striker had shown magnificent control in bringing down Fernandinho’s pass, the crowd became gradually more restless and attempts on goal became progressively more rushed.  Wilfried Bony was guilty of a bad miss after Gaël Clichy’s cross picked him out in a perfect position on the six yard line, shooting first time but putting the ball wide from right in front of goal. Agüero saw a shot on the turn palmed away by Guzan, then put his next effort just past the post after an interchange with Bony, who ended the first half with a tame header from the edge of the area that summed up City’s lack of actual penetration.  Watching from his technical area, Garde seemed satisfied enough with the way the game was going, though on one of their rare forays upfield Villa missed a wonderful chance to take an interval lead. While Joe Hart did well to get down to Jordan Ayew’s shot after almost half an hour of inaction, with half the City defence having stopped in anticipation of a free-kick that never came it was a better opportunity than the striker perhaps realised.  Villa were left to rue their inability to spring a surprise when City opened the second half with the sort of goal that made you wonder why they had taken so long. For once their three most effective attackers combined in unanswerable fashion, Agüero driving to the goal line before turning the ball back for David Silva, who moved the ball across for Yaya Touré to stroke languidly home from near the penalty spot. Against Villa that was probably always going to be enough but, as if to emphasise the gulf between the sides, City went two up within two minutes. There was a touch of good fortune about their second, with Micah Richards’ attempted clearance bouncing back off Agüero’s shin and into an empty net, though no question that Villa had been opened up again through Silva and Bony, the latter making up for his lacklustre finishing with a measured through ball.  Related: West Ham stun 10-man Everton as Dimitri Payet seals fightback win  When Agüero added a third after a trademark surge into the area from Silva’s return pass the contest was clearly over, so much so that Pellegrini introduced Raheem Sterling for the last half hour. There has been some debate of late over whether the substitute’s up-and-down season has represented a reasonable return on an outlay of £49m, and this was another indifferent display, though a goal with one of his first touches will have done the player’s confidence no harm. In truth he could hardly have missed, and watching the almost comical ineptitude Joleon Lescott and Alan Hutton demonstrated in failing to cut out a Jesús Navas cross to leave Sterling with a tap-in, the withdrawn Bony must have been highly unamused.  The rout could have been worse but Agüero struck a post with a penalty after Ciaran Clark had brought down Kelechi Iheanacho. It will not do the goalkeeper or his side a tiny bit of good but Guzan deserved a break.  “Our only plan was not to concede,” Garde admitted. “It worked in the first half but not in the second. We can play in a different way, and maybe the fans would like us to, but when you are bottom of the table you have to be realistic at a club that could still win the Champions League. Being too open and optimistic would be like suicide.”
The Manchester City striker also missed a penalty but Yaya Touré and Raheem Sterling scored to make it 4-0 and exacerbate Aston Villa’s slide towards relegation