It could hardly have been better scripted; Darren Bent silenced his critics with a clinical poacher’s goal 18 minutes into his Aston Villa debut before a 2nd half of sometimes desperate defending kept Man City at bay. It was Villa’s first league win of 2011 and sets up the opportunity to record back to back wins for the first time this season with the visit to Wigan on Tuesday.

Gerard Houllier signalled his intentions with what looked like a very attacking line-up, possibly a 4-3-3 with Bent sandwiched by Young and Gabby up top, Petrov flanked by Albrighton and Downing. Once the game kicked off it was closer to a 4-4-1-1, Ash behind Bent, ahead of a central midfield pairing of Downing and Petrov, Gabby and Albrighton out wide. And it worked.

The goal came thanks to Gabby robbing David Silva of possession on the left before stabbing the perfect ball through for Ashley Young’s run. Ash shot from the edge of the box and Joe Hart could only parry and who was there? Darren Bent showed the predatory instincts that Houllier was willing to spend big to bring to Villa Park.

The right place at the right time and a cool, calm finish when it was required. That’s why Bent has now scored as many league goals as Wayne Rooney in the last five years.

Villa saw out the first half in positive fashion, the side looked well organised and positive. Ashley Young, in particular, was everywhere, keen to move the ball on as quickly as possible. Bent’s running was intelligent while Gabby and Marc Albrighton were up and down the flanks tirelessly. It’s worth mentioning that Marc did a much improved job of staying on his feet and avoid rash tackles when tracking back.

After the break, it very quickly became a task of holding what we had as City pegged the home side back. At times it was quite desperate defending, practically a tight back four unit flanked by Gabby and Albrighton as wing backs, Petrov and Downing frantically providing what cover they could.

Frustrated at not being able to find a way through the middle, Mancini brought Adam Johnson on for the last half hour in place of Gareth Barry (who received the sort of warm reaction you might imagine), and the young winger gave Ciaran Clark a torrid time, but still City couldn’t get close.

Time and again if one of the back four were beaten, the next one was there, each one of them willing to throw themselves in front of a train for the cause. Dunne looked extremely sharp, even pacey at times, Carlos was valiant and positive, Clark industrious and determined, and James Collins was the rock at the heart of it all, a beast of a performance today.

They couldn’t have done it without the protection of the players in front of them, Albrighton and Gabby have already been mentioned, but both ran their legs off tonight, Petrov and Downing were disciplined and determined in the middle, Stan looked like a new player at times.

I’d have to single Ashley Young out though, he was fantastic from whistle to whistle and must have covered every blade of grass on that pitch. He also managed to unleash three decent quality shots from distance that might have led a lesser keeper than Joe Hart to present an opportunity for Darren Bent sniffing around the goal mouth, but his job today was chief harasser and he did it very well.

Darren Bent will probably dominate the headlines, but for most of the match he saw little of the ball, which probably serves to illustrate the value of clinical finisher perfectly. He had one chance, one shot, it was on target and it nestled the back of the net.

If asked, I really wouldn’t know who to award a man of the match to, all of the ten outfield players would be in with a shout and their efforts are the reason why Brad Friedel wouldn’t be in the running, he simply didn’t have that much to do despite City unleashing no less than 25 shots at goal. Only two were on target.

In the end, we got everything we could have hoped for; an encouraging performance, a result; the win was the bonus. Oh, and Villa Park was rocking too.

So, it’s still one game at a time, next up it’s Wigan on Tuesday. For now, we can soak up the relief and enjoy the little glimpse of daylight that has just opened up between ourselves and the bottom three.

Aston Villa Starting XI: Friedel, Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, Clark, Albrighton, Petrov, Downing, Young, Agbonlahor, Bent. Subs: Marshall, Delfouneso, Pires, Reo-Coker, Bannan, Herd, Baker.

Man City Starting XI: Hart, Kolarov, K.Toure, Kompany, Boateng, Y.Toure, Barry, De Jong, Silva, Tevez, Dzeko. Subs: Given, Zabaleta, Milner, Johnson, Lescott, Vieira, Jo.