Man City 3 Burnley 1
Vincent Kompany returned to The Etihad Stadium with his Burnley team with a tough task ahead of them. Man City had returned to good form since their break for the Club World Cup, propelling themselves up the table to second.
Guardiola’s side got off to a good start as Matheus Nunes got to the byline and looked to pick somebody out in the box. Burnley had numbers back and managed to block initially but the ball rather cruelly came straight back to the midfielder.
He looked up, taking his time before clipping a ball into the box, giving Alvarez the simplest of tasks of heading into the back of the net. Since the injury to Erling Haaland, the Argentine forward has really stepped up to the plate for Man City.
Kevin De Bruyne has really added something that was missing since returning from injury and he created the second goal for the hosts. As he stood over a free kick, he slid a ball into the box for the Man City forward to run onto.
Credit: @ManCity
Julian Alvarez duly obliged and slotted the ball past Trafford to double their lead. With only 22 minutes of the game gone, it was starting to look ominous for the visitors. When City are in this kind of form, they are a difficult beast to resist.
Burnley managed to create a rare chance to get down the other end of the pitch and as Foster cut inside, he looked to bend one in the far corner. His shot narrowly missed the post with Ederson at full stretch to try and keep him out.
When the second half kicks off at The Etihad, you could be forgiven for thinking the fire alarms have gone off in the stadium. As you look around, there are empty seats as far as the eye can see. Must be that prawn sandwich brigade the Gallaghers talk of so often.
The defending champions did not take their foot off the gas as they immediately pinned The Clarets into their own half after the break. Foden cut inside from the right and laid it into the path of Rodri on the edge of the box. The Spaniard bent his shot into the bottom corner to make it three-nil.
In a game of fine margins, especially away to Man City, Kompany’s side cannot have expected to get many chances. This makes it all the more important that you are clinical when they do present themselves. Amdouni had a great chance to bring his side back into the game but skied his effort over the bar.
Erling Haaland made a welcome return to action as he replaced De Bruyne. The big Norwegian immediately had a half-chance but was shepherded well by the defender to prevent him getting a decent contact on his header.
Credit: @ManCity
He will be a huge part of Man City’s efforts to catch Liverpool at the top of the table and Pep Guardiola will be hoping he can stay fit. The hosts were comfortable throughout this game, with Burnley not offering the most testing of opposition.
These are not the games The Clarets will have earmarked as ‘winnable’, if anything it is more important to remain competitive. Al Dakhil got a late consolation for Kompany’s side as he bundled a cross over the line in added time.
What will have pleased the Burnley manager more is that his goal was assisted by loan signing David Fofana who they have signed from Chelsea. Goals will be key if they are going to stand any chance of surviving this season.
Man City are now second in the table, five points behind leaders Liverpool, with a game in hand. It is all lending itself to being a titanic battle between the two teams, it is anybody’s guess who will come out on top by the end of the season.
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