Manchester City returns to the Premier League top 3 for the first time since November

Manchester City had a truly disappointing season. Few could have predicted that the team that won four leagues in a row would fall out of form so drastically this year. Especially for a team that was leading the table as usual in the first weeks: they were still leading the Premier League in late October (matchday 9) and were second in late November (matchday 12). However, a run of four defeats, including a 0-4 against Tottenham and an 0-2 against Liverpool meant that City saw the largest drop for a Pep Guardiola side in years.

What followed was a team that even fell out of the European positions, dropping as bad as seventh place. But, for a few days at least, Manchester City will sleep again in the top 3, after a 2-1 win against Aston Villa, with a goal by Matheus Nunes in 94th minute. A match that Guardiola considered "a final".

"Aston Villa is a team to the last man, one of the top teams in Europe", said Guardiola. "We played really good. We were aggressive in our duels, the back-four was unbelievable."

Aston Villa is a direct competitor for Manchester City for the Champions League spots: Liverpool and Arsenal will likely secure the first and second spot, but from third to fifth there's a race that includes Manchester City (61 points), Nottingham Forest (60 points), Newcastle (59 points), Chelsea (57 points) and Aston Villa (57 points).

Manchester City is now third after Liverpool and Arsenal, but that could and will likely change next weekend. City and Villa have played one more match, as their game was moved forward from the weekend. The rest will be played on the weekend as usual, while Manchester City, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, and Crystal Palace play the FA Cup semi-finals. While Guardiola tries to reach the only title he has available this year (minus the FIFA Club World Cup), he will be watching Newcastle vs Ipswich (Saturday, April 26, 15:00 BST), Chelsea vs. Everton (Saturday, 12:30 BST) and a few days later Nottingham Forest vs. Brentford (Thursday, May 1, 19:30 BST).