Manchester City 3, Aston Villa 1: Mat Kendrick's big match verdict

May 3 2010 By Mat Kendrick

IT WAS not only a foregone conclusion, but also a four-gone conclusion.

Villa’s brave failure to clinch fourth and a Champions League place had an air of inevitability.

To borrow a phrase from the club’s leading fanzine, Heroes & Villains – it’s deja vu all over again. And to use another – Aston Villa: 20 glorious years of not knowing if it’s boom or gloom.

Villa have been here before under Graham Taylor, Big Ron, Brian Little and John Gregory.

Also-rans, nearly men, best-of-the-rest. It hurts because it’s true.

Villa’s most common Premier League placing will come as no surprise. If, as expected, they return to their default position this season, it will be their sixth time finishing sixth – and third in a row under the current manager.

Martin O’Neill revels in the role of underdog, but much now depends on how tired he is of being typecast in the part of groundhog.

For O’Neill’s class of 2010, read Gregory’s men of the Millennium. A losing final, a semi-final defeat and, more than likely, a sixth- place finish.

It proved to be the beginning of the end for Gregory. What it means for O’Neill should become clear following crunch talks with chairman Randy Lerner, after next weekend’s season finale at home to Blackburn.

The Villa manager can point to a season of some progress with controversial near-misses in both cups and another higher points tally in the Premier League.

O’Neill suggests that not only have Villa got stronger, but so too has the standard of the top flight.

His concern is whether the increasingly cash-cautious claret and blues can continue to keep pace with rivals whose improvement plans are dripping with money.

The general Villa concern is whether O’Neill still possesses the energy and inclination to move the club away from its perennial position on the outside looking in.

That O’Neill’s latest bid to join Europe’s elite was strangled by the trademark scarf of City’s suave continental coach Roberto Mancini was an interesting footnote.

As both bosses patrolled their technical areas on Saturday, the contrast between the Armani-attired Italian’s style and the tracksuit wearing Irishman could not have been more stark.