Manchester City's Michael Johnson (right) avoids a tackle by Aston Villa's Zat Knight during their English Premier League match at The City of Manchester Stadium, yesterday. City won 1-0. - AP

LONDON, (Reuters):

Manchester City moved into second place in the Premier League yesterday after a goal from teenager Michael Johnson gave them a 1-0 win over Aston Villa.

Johnson powered past three Villa defenders after taking a pass from Brazilian Elano to fire wide of keeper Scott Carson in the 48th minute.

The win on a rainy afternoon at the City of Manchester Stadium saw Sven-Goran Eriksson's menclimb from eighth to second place with 12 points from their opening six matches.

Arsenal are top with 13 points, followed by City, Liverpool (11), champions Manchester United (11) and Chelsea (11).

Villa, who beat Chelsea in their last league match two weeks ago, remain in 11th place with seven points.

Evenly matched game

The game was evenly matched with both sides creating and spurning scoring chances, but Johnson's strike was enough to give City their third successive 1-0 home league win this season.

Eriksson left Stephen Ireland out of his side after he said the midfielder "was not quite right" after the player admitted lying and apologising to Irish officials after claiming his grandmother had died while on international duty last week.

"He trained today, but he wasn't quite right," Eriksson told Sky TV. "He will be back on Tuesday and I am sure he will be 100 per cent then."

Meanwhile Manchester United suffered a blow yesterday when defender Mikael Silvestre was ruled out of the rest of the season after damaging his knee.

Silvestre hurt a cruciate ligament in his knee in the 39th minute of United's 1-0 win over Everton in the Premier League on Saturday. He caught his studs in the turf and fell awkwardly, twisting his knee.

He was carried off the field on a stretcher.

Manchester United said on its Website that Silvestre was ruled out for the rest of the season.