Donnarumma, what a blunder! Manchester City loses to him: the goalkeeper receives the lowest grade of his career

Goalkeeper Gigio Donnarumma's terrible afternoon didn't just include the blunder that condemned Manchester City to a defeat at Aston Villa, their first in the Premier League this season, after seven wins in their first seven games. The 27-year-old Italian goalkeeper had one of the worst performances of his career, the worst, at least according to the assessment given by "WhoScored", the well-known statistics site that assigns a grade from 1 to 10 to all footballers, based on an algorithm that takes into account more than 200 parameters.

Goalkeeper Donnarumma's rating for his performance against the Villans, who won 2-1 at home, was 4.90. Gigio had never received such a low rating before, neither at City, nor at Milan, nor at Udinese. The worst rating so far had been 5, in a match between the Rossoneri and Udinese.

Donnarumma a disaster, City lose to him

Goalkeeper Donnarumma's mistake had serious consequences. At Villa Park, the score was 1-1, thanks to Nicolas Jackson's goal in the 6th minute of the first half and Erling Haaland's equalizer early in the second half. In the 60th minute, the same Senegalese striker, who is in excellent form with six goals in his last six games, sent the ball into the net with a swift shot, after a cross from the right by Mbaye. The shot was low and in the center, but the Italian goalkeeper landed awkwardly and allowed the ball to pass under his wings.

After this moment, City, despite playing well, failed to restore the balance and were defeated by Emery's team. This was the first defeat in the championship for the "Sky Blues", who remain at the quota of 21 points, while Arsenal have the opportunity to reach them if they win today against Everton. In the Champions League, City had already lost in the second match, in the transfer to PSG, while the other two matches had won against Porto and AEK.

Maresca after the match: "We didn't deserve to lose, but this is football"

After the match, Enzo Maresca could not understand how his team had left Birmingham without a point. In fact, the match statistics show a clear advantage for City in almost every aspect of the game. But, as we know, the only numbers that matter are those next to the “goals scored” and “goals conceded” columns.

"I don't think we deserved to lose, but we lost anyway. There's always something to learn and of course there are aspects we could have managed better today. Overall, the performance was good, as were the number of chances created. In the second half we only allowed the goal action, which came after a counterattack. Sometimes you have to defend better or have a little more luck in such situations, but that's football: we learn from mistakes and move on. We played most of the match in their penalty area. We have to be more precise in front of goal and avoid mistakes like the ones that led to the two goals conceded," explained the coach from Campania.

As for goalkeeper Donnarumma, whose contract with City expires in 2030, after the match he was targeted by many fans on social media, in a clearly excessive and unfair way. “Pack your bags and leave”, “You live with the merits of what you did in the past”, “You are Onana in disguise”, “Luis Enrique was right” – these and many other comments appeared under videos of the Italy goalkeeper's mistake, which quickly went viral.