Manchester City returned to winning ways with a 1-0 victory over Aston Villa in their Premiership match on Sunday.

Michael Johnson was once again the hero for Man City as his goal two minutes into the second half was all that separated the teams. Johnson had earlier scored City's only goal in the 1-0 victory over Derby County.

A poor first half saw few chances for both the teams as City went on the attack early on with Vedran Corluka coming close to hitting the target in the 10th minute, but his shot from 25 yards out went just wide of the post.

Kasper Schmeichel looked unlike his usual self in the first half and nearly had to pay for his poor decision-making when he raced forward to collect a cross and missed the ball but Gabriel Agbonlahor was unable to hit the target from a tight angle.

Man City very nearly took the lead when Elano latched on to a defensive error by Laursen and passed the ball to Johnson but the midfielder hit his shot straight into the face of Scott Carson. However the teenage midfielder made amends for his miss just two minutes into the second half with a brilliant goal to put Man City in the lead.

Johnson and Elano combined well in the midfield, playing a series of passes before the 19-year old midfielder burst past Laursen to smash home past Carson to score his second goal of the season. Villa immediately chalked up a response and John Carew should have put the visitors level but his header went just wide of the post.

Laursen had a couple of good chances to score from the corners but was unable to direct his headers on target as Aston Villa failed to take advantage of a late siege on the Man City goal, leaving the City of Manchester stadium empty handed.