Manchester City deservedly beat Burnley, who were promoted by the Sky Blues’ well-known coach Vincent Kompany. Fulfilling their duty allows Pep Guardiola and Co. to continue dreaming of defending their title
ManCity’s coach Pep Guadiola, who played many different players compared to the 1-0 win against Tottenham in the FA Cup – De Bruyne and Doku were new to the attack – only had a few problems in the early stages. The Argentinian world champion Alvarez scored with his head in the 16th minute to make it 1-0, but the striker was not under any pressure, nor was Matheus Nunes, who provided the assist half-heartedly.
Shortly afterwards, Alvarez, who was celebrating his 24th birthday and had been given preference over the recovered Haaland, increased the lead: the striker found himself free in the penalty area after a finely executed free-kick by De Bruyne and kept his cool (22′). The lead was well deserved at the break, Burnley were completely dominated
Rodri scores seconds after the break
It got even worse for ex-Citizen Vincent Kompany’s team seconds after the restart: Rodri scored to make it 3-0 to the Sky Blues (46′). And instead of taking the one opportunity to score, Amdouni missed miserably (51st).
The Clarets were simply too harmless in front of goal, but at least they kept ManCity away from their own box. The game bobbled along until the end. On a positive note for the Sky Blues, Haaland celebrated his comeback in the 71st minute
Fofana scores the consolation goal
What was worse for Guardiola’s team was that Burnley actually scored the consolation goal: ex-Union player Fofana set up Al-Dakhil’s late goal (90.+3).
ManCity will host Brentford FC next matchday at 9pm. The runners-up will be looking to keep pace with league leaders Liverpool FC, who host top team Arsenal FC the day before (5.30pm).
