Enzo Maresca’s perfect start to Premier League play as Manchester City boss was ended by Aston Villa on Saturday in a 2-1 defeat at Villa Park.

Nicolas Jackson gave Villa an early lead and the Senegalese restored it, too, after Erling Haaland’s league-best ninth goal of the season brought City level.

Villa started poorly but are back in the top-five discussion with three wins and a draw since starting 0W-1D-3L.

The Villans, also perfect in the Champions League, have 11 points and are 10 back of City. More importantly, they’ll finish Week 8 within sight of the Champions League places on the PL table.

Here are thoughts from both managers but Man City defender Ruben Dias:

Enzo Maresca reaction after Aston Villa 2-1 Man City — ‘We deserved something more’

Good game for the neutrals: “Even for us it was a good game, performance. Unfortunately we lost but overall we did enough to deserve something more. We’ll learn from it and move on.”

Tough start: “We struggled the first probably 10-15 minutes and we expected them in one way and they were in a different way. We adjusted and controlled the game.”

“When we scored, I had the feeling the entire game we were in control. We created many chances but sometimes we have to be more lucky. We considered just one transition the entire second half and unfortunately they score.”

Unai Emery reaction after Aston Villa 2-1 Man City

Big win? “We planned this match, trying to keep the same consistencies and demands. After our two wins against Fenerbahce and Viking, how we responded, some players fresh — today was match for them — like Kamara and Cash. This is the level we want to achieve and keep. High demands. Today was a really good test. I was so excited for this test, how we were facing them. After the match, progressively getting better. Eventually, the players will have a good impact when we needed them. Today is one step forward — clear, clear understanding.”

On Nicolas Jackson: “How he was working. How he was defending, wow. And then he has the power to attack with spaces and in duels. His challenge has been when he can have chances to score, always in the corner of the goals because he was shooting so much at the beginning of the season like in rugby.”

Doing a great job renovating the team? “Not yet. We are progressing but we are under our expectation at the beginning of the season because we started so poor. Now we are progressing, improving. We analyzed the match against Arsenal at home. We competed well but it wasn’t enough. We analyzed the match against Forest at home. We lost and our performance was so, so bad. We improved so many things against Brentford at home. We were better but it was not enough. Today everything we working on to try to set our standard high in everything was a step forward. Champions League is very fantastic how we are performing. In the league we are progressing but still under expectation.”

Ruben Dias on Man City’s first loss of the PL season

Thoughts on the game: “Frustrating for us, obviously everybody fought a lot. The first 10-15 minutes, I’m not sure. We fought, we fought. We created a lot of chances and we had a lot of momentum and they ended up scoring in transitions, they were very efficient.”

On Villa’s goals: “Obviously the second one is a tougher one because it was very close to our equalizer and a little bit killed the momentum we had. It was not our day but we keep going forward.”