Villa raided by inner-City smash and grab

Darius Vassell, pictured in 2005, extended his personal vendetta against Aston Villa to finally end Stuart Pearce's desperate wait for a Premiership away win.

Darius Vassell extended his personal vendetta against Aston Villa to finally end Stuart Pearce's desperate wait for a Premiership away win.

Vassell secured his fifth goal in five games against his former club and sent Manchester City on their way towards condemning Martin O'Neill to his first home defeat at Villa Park.

The England international striker chose the perfect moment to score his first goal of the campaign.

Joey Barton enhanced his hopes of a call-up to Steve McClaren's England international squad with the second before Gavin McCann drove in a consolation 22 minutes from the end.

But City finally ended their travel sickness and secured their first away win since April - also at Villa - when Sylvain Distin grabbed the killer third.

City manager Pearce had suffered defeat in 14 of his last 16 trips but they never looked in danger of slipping to another miserable outing as Villa produced their worst performance under new manager O'Neill.

It was only Villa's second league defeat under the former Northern Ireland international midfielder but will certainly have served as a reminder to American billionaire chairman Randy Lerner that he will have to fund a major spending spree in the January transfer window.

City, despite their atrocious away record, were the more dangerous side throughout and early on Georgios Samaras, the Greek international, tested Stuart Taylor with a low eighth-minute drive.

Vassell had delighted his terrace critics soon after by slicing wastefully wide from a good position but seized his moment against his former employers in the 18th minute.

Tunisian international Hatem Trabelsi's cross was flicked on by Samaras into the path of Vassell and he powerfully drove the ball past Taylor from eight yards out.

And the former Villa striker almost struck again by heading Trabelsi's cross onto the roof of the net.

Villa had never looked in danger of losing their unbeaten home record in their previous seven matches but were simply atrocious in the first half, with the visiting defence chomping on cigars such was the lack of threat.

Therefore it was no surprise when City extended their lead through Barton just after the half hour.

Wilfrid Bouma was caught out completely by Claudio Reyna's pass to release Samaras in the box and the striker had time to set up Barton for a simple finish.

It was Barton's fourth goal of yet another impressive campaign and Pearce's insistence that he deserves a call-up to the England national side is surely not going to fall on deaf ears for too much longer.

Villa produced their first resistance in the final minute of the first half - and should have reduced the deficit.

Former Bulgarian international midfielder Stilian Petrov is still yet to find his feet since his seven-million-pound move from Celtic but unleashed a devastating 30-yard free kick that came back off the crossbar and bounced agonisingly inches from the goalline.

Villa were marginally improved in the second half with Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel shooting wide before Petrov forced a smart reflex save from Nicky Weaver.

And they finally snarled some defiance in the 68th minute when McCann drove a 25-yard shot past Taylor, his first goal of the season.

Distin, however, used great strength to barge past Liam Ridgewell for an impressive third 15 minutes from time to ease City to victory.