So that’s the end of tonight’s story. Jamie Jackson was at the Etihad, and here’s his report. Enjoy, enjoy ... and thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Burnley captain Ben Mee is asked by Sky how tough the match was. Here’s his emotional yet eloquent answer: “It was a tough night, and we can talk about football, but there’s something I want to speak about first. The aeroplane. I’m ashamed and embarrassed that a small number of our fans have decided to put that around the stadium. They’ve completely missed the point. Our lads are embarrassed to see that, it’s not what we’re about at all. They’ve missed the point of what we’re trying to achieve, trying to do. These people need to come into the 21st century and educate themselves. It doesn’t represent what we’re about, what the club’s about, what the players are about, and what the majority of our fans are about. I’m really upset that it happened. We’d heard some whispers that it might happen, and the club tried to stop it. I hope it doesn’t happen again. I’m upset that it’s associated with our club, my club. It’s not right, we totally condemn it. Hopefully these people will learn what the whole Black Lives Matter movement is trying to achieve. The players have pulled together, this is what we want, and what the majority of fans want. We want equality in society, whether it be race, religion, gender, LGBTQ community, and we want to make a stand.”
A charming interview with a very happy man-of-the-match Phil Foden. “It’s always good to play a part and score goals, and just enjoying my football. The main thing is I’m just happy to get the result today. We’re looking sharp and I just hope we can continue the form into the next games. No matter who the manager puts out, everyone does a job, it’s just great to be part of the team. I think that was my best game in a City shirt. I’m still learning every day, I’ve still got a long way to go, I’m still young, but I’m just happy when I put performances like that in.”
That reduces Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League to 20 points. City are probably more interested in the fact they’ve got a 17-point lead over fifth-placed neighbours United, which will stand them in good stead if they successfully appeal their European ban. Then again, nothing’s over until it’s over. However, on that subject, should Liverpool beat Crystal Palace on Wednesday, City will have to beat Chelsea on Thursday to keep the title race alive. Burnley remain in 11th spot.
FULL TIME: Manchester City 5-0 Burnley
That’s City’s third 5-0 home win over Burnley in a row. It could easily have been more. A dispirited Burnley trudge off. City are understandably ecstatic. They’ve been wonderful tonight.
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90 min +1: A huge cat-plus-cream smile plays across the face of young Phil Foden, sitting in the dugout, as he’s told of Jamie Carragher’s decision to name him as Sky’s man of the match. That’s a lovely moment. He deserves it.
90 min: There will be two added minutes.
89 min: It’s been an evening to forget for Burnley, though their young striker Max Thompson will remember it: he comes on for Vydra to make his debut.
88 min: De Bruyne dances down the left and loops long. Bernardo Silva, drifting in from the other flank, hits the dropping ball first time. He connects well, but the shot is blocked.
87 min: David Silva tries a curler from the right. For once, the quality’s not there. Hey, nobody’s perfect.
85 min: Jesus skedaddles down the inside right and is unceremoniously upended by Mee, who has had a shocker this evening. A free kick in a very dangerous position ... but it’s slapped straight into the wall by the not-yet-up-to-speed Sane.
83 min: Lowton nearly releases Vydra through the middle with a clever pass from the right, but Brownhill accidentally gets in the way and diverts his team-mates ball towards Ederson.
81 min: Sane’s quickly in the thick of it, sent scampering into space down the left by a glorious De Bruyne prompt. His low cross, meant for Jesus, is cut out.
80 min: Leroy Sane, reportedly desirous of a move to Bayern Munich, returns for the start of his long City swansong. The truly magnificent Foden makes way.
79 min: Rodri creams one towards Pope, who gathers without too much fuss.
78 min: De Bruyne sashays into a huge pocket of space, 25 yards out. He thinks about shooting but tries to release Jesus instead. Unselfish, but perhaps not the correct decision, as Jesus was surrounded.
76 min: City continue to stroke it around in an insouciant way.
74 min: Vydra romps after a long ball down the left and nearly gets the better of Otamendi. But not quite. He’s forced to turn tail, then McNeil - who is a fine prospect but hasn’t been on it today - shanks a simple pass out of play. The look of quiet disgust on Sean Dyche’s face is a picture. A long breath through the nose before he turns and storms off back to the dugout.
72 min: Rodri shovels a pass down the left channel but it’s a bit too heavy for David Silva and flies out for a goal kick. Shame for City, because had the ball been weighted correctly, Silva would have been through on goal. As it is, City remain on track for their third 5-0 home win over Burnley on the bounce.
71 min: City stroke it hither and yon, just because they can.
69 min: And that’s drinks! During which Pep Guardiola, his team five goals to the good and coasting, gives Gabriel Jesus some beneficial advice in a very animated style. He’s not one for letting up, our Pep, but then we’ve known that for quite a few years now.
68 min: City are inside Mee’s head. Again he backs off, this time when De Bruyne runs at him. De Bruyne drags a shot wide left, a poor effort for a man of his brilliance, given the time he was afforded.
66 min: ... some head tennis, but nothing more. City go straight up the other end, through the increasingly influential Foden, who shimmies down the middle of the park before laying off for Jesus. The striker shanks his shot wide right, but not before teasing Mee.
65 min: Pieters charges down the left, more in hope than anything else, but manages to win a corner off Foden. From which ...
GOAL! Manchester City 5-0 Burnley (Foden 63)
This is way too easy. De Bruyne rolls a pass down the inside right. David Silva pings a low ball into the centre. Jesus shuttles it on for Foden, coming in from the left. He batters a shot past Pope at his near post. Pope tries to hack clear off the line, but he can’t stop it. No hat-trick for Mahrez, but now Foden’s on one!
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62 min: Cancelo’s careless pass allows Vydra to make good down the left. Cancelo cynically brings the striker down and that’s a booking. McNeil flashes a dismal free kick miles over the bar.
61 min: Changes for both sides. City swap Fernandinho and Mahrez with Laporte and De Bruyne. So no hat-trick for Mahrez tonight. Meanwhile Burnley bolster their midfield with Pieters, taking off the striker Rodriguez.
59 min: It turns out Brownhill was booked in the first half for what looked like a dreadful challenge on Rodri, during the build-up to Mahrez’s first goal. Brownhill raked his studs down Rodri’s shin and stood on the top of his foot. Rodri’s lucky Brownhill didn’t land harder with his initial movement, because that could have been a proper leg-bender. Brownhill’s very lucky not to see red.
58 min: The virtual City fans are giving Blue Moon plenty at the minute. A poor version of the real thing, but you take what you can get, and it’s better than nothing.
56 min: On the touchline, Sean Dyche strokes the top of his head with the flat of his palm. A classic coping mechanism. It’s going to be a long second half for Burnley.
54 min: A long ball down the middle, and Vydra’s free! But it quickly becomes apparent that the City defence had stopped, the linesman’s flag springing up for offside. Vydra drags his shot wide anyway.
GOAL! Manchester City 4-0 Burnley (D Silva 52)
This is too easy. From a corner on the right, Foden busies himself around the Burnley box. He feeds Bernardo Silva with a no-look pass down the inside right. He fires low and hard into the centre, and his namesake David slams home.
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50 min: Burnley have put out a statement “strongly condemning those responsible for the aircraft and offensive banner”.
“We wish to make it clear that those responsible are not welcome at Turf Moor. This, in no way, represents what Burnley Football Club stands for and we will work fully with the authorities to identify those responsible and issue lifetime bans.
“The club has a proud record of working with all genders, religions and faiths through its award-winning Community scheme, and stands against racism of any kind. We are fully behind the Premier League’s Black Lives Matter initiative and, in line with all other Premier League games undertaken since Project Restart, our players and football staff willingly took the knee at kick-off at Manchester City.
“We apologise unreservedly to the Premier League, to Manchester City and to all those helping to promote Black Lives Matter.”
48 min: Jesus turns out of a tight spot in midfield to race into space. He feeds Zinchenko to his left. Zinchenko drops a shoulder, cuts inside, and peals a shot towards the top right. There’s meat behind that, but it smashes into his own man David Silva and it’s deflected out for a goal kick.
46 min: It’s not long before David Silva is skating down the left and hooping a cross towards Jesus at the far post. It’s a wee bit high for the Brazilian, who can only guide his header wide right. An early sign that the hosts are in no mood to declare.
And we’re off again! City get the ball rolling for their second-half stroll. No changes at half-time.
Half-time analysis.
HALF TIME: Manchester City 3-0 Burnley
I think it’s already safe to say that Liverpool won’t have the opportunity of winning the title against Crystal Palace on Wednesday. The reigning champions have been magnificent; Burnley have offered nothing.
45 min +5: Mahrez brings down a long pass on the right and swans past McNeil in one smooth movement, then nearly finds Jesus at the far post with a dipping cross. Not quite. Burnley are suddenly all over the shop.
45 min +4: Mee has injured Aguero’s foot in treading on it, and the striker is replaced by Jesus.
GOAL! Manchester City 3-0 Burnley (Mahrez 45+3 pen)
Mahrez tucks an unstoppable shot into the bottom left. Pope guesses the correct way, but he’s got no chance of saving it.
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Penalty for Manchester City
45 min +2: With a bemused Sean Dyche looking on, the referee points to the spot. It’s the correct decision.
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45 min +1: There will be two added minutes. And in the first, as Foden plays a pass into the area from the left, Mee lunges in on Aguero, clipping his foot after the striker gets to the ball. It’s a VAR check for a penalty kick.
45 min: The scoreline flatters Burnley. It’s only a wonder the second goal took so long.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-0 Burnley (Mahrez 43)
Fernandinho sprays a diagonal ball towards Mahrez on the right wing by the halfway line. Mahrez tears off towards the Burnley box. He stops a second to twist Taylor’s blood then makes himself enough space to zip a shot across Pope and into the bottom left. So simple, yet such a lovely goal.
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42 min: Burnley haven’t bothered the City defence at all. Ederson has been a complete bystander. They win a couple of throws down the left, but that’s all there is to report.
40 min: Rodri tees up Zinchenko for a whack from 25 yards. It’s dipping towards the bottom right, but smothered by Pope.
38 min: City continue to dominate, albeit currently in a sterile fashion. “They need to find the people who paid to have that plane up there and put them in prison,” writes JR in Illinois. “And while they’re at it find the people at the company that accepted the money to fly that banner and put them in prison as well. I swear. Every frickin day it’s something else.”
36 min: Aguero rat-a-tats a couple of quickfire shots from the edge of the Burnley box. The first is blocked, then he deflects the second with his arm. Burnley are hanging on a bit here.
34 min: City are thoroughly dominating. A second goal appears nothing more than a matter of time.
32 min: I mean, imagine getting so angry by notions of equality, compassion, fairness, solidarity and love that you’d spend £££s of your own money to recreate the titles of World of Sport as if they were filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. The absolute state of these clowns.
30 min: A corner for City leads to some head tennis in the Burnley box. Aguero can’t deliver a decisive smash near the left-hand post.
28 min: Black lives matter.
26 min: The game restarts. Meanwhile up in the sky ... what on earth is wrong with these people?
24 min: And that’s drinks.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Burnley (Foden 23)
The corner’s played short and worked back to Foden, just to the right of the D. He takes a look before whistling a forensic shot into the bottom right. Pope had no chance. What a finish!
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22 min: City press forward, Mahrez nearly releasing Aguero down the right. Aguero’s attempted first-time cross clanks off Tarkowski for a corner on the right. From which ...
20 min: Burnley buzz around in the City half for a bit. First Rodriguez presses Otamendi hard, forcing a misplaced pass into touch. Then Westwood is crudely checked by Rodri as he makes his way down the right. A free kick. It’s swung into the box, but Tarkowski can only clank a harmless header out of play for a goal kick.
18 min: Zinchenko rolls a diagonal pass inside from the left to release David Silva into a large pocket of space in the middle. He advances towards the box before laying off to his namesake Bernardo, steaming in from the right. Bernardo takes a touch and lashes wildly right of goal. A really poor effort, with only Pope to beat. He should have worked the keeper at the very least; he probably should have scored.
16 min: Cancelo has a blast from 30 yards. Full marks for ambition if not execution.
14 min: Cancelo curls one in from the right, hoping to find Aguero on the penalty spot, but Mee deals with the danger and clears.
13 min: City are dominating possession, much as you’d expect. Burnley are holding their shape well enough though. Meanwhile here’s Digvijay Yadav on Burnley’s contract woes: “The toughest thing for sides like Burnley, Bournemouth etc is regeneration. Once the older generation gives way, clubs lose their way. Shows what a good job Leicester have done. Established themselves as a top-half club.”
11 min: David Silva gets up and takes it himself. He sends something that’s neither shot nor cross floating harmlessly wide right of the Burnley goal. A waste, and a most uncharacteristic one at that.
10 min: Tarkowski comes clattering into the back of David Silva, and this is a free kick for City just to the left of the Burnley box. Danger here!
9 min: Well, not quite, because Burnley enjoy a small period of possession of their own. They don’t really go anywhere, but perhaps that’ll build some confidence for the long haul ahead.
7 min: A Burnley free kick on the halfway line. It’s hoicked into the mixer and easily dealt with by Otamendi. A pattern may be developing here.
6 min: City continue to ping it around at fast speed. Burnley are going to have to run around quite a lot this evening. “Clever of Dyche to lure City into thinking Burnley are utterly incompetent,” writes Ian Copestake, who may or may not have got 20s on the away side and lumped on. “Draw the sting of motivation from them then hit them with the thing that Burnley do when they win at football.”
4 min: Vydra attempts a cute over-the-shoulder hook down the left, and nearly threads the ball through for Rodriguez. But Cancelo and Fernandinho close ranks quickly and efficiently. A nice open start to this.
2 min: City respond by spending most of the following two minutes stroking it around metronomically. Foden eventually tries to spring David Silva clear down the inside left, but his pass is too strong. Goal kick.
And we’re off! Burnley are immediately on the front foot, pumping the ball long down the left, Ederson forced to race from his box to head clear under pressure from Vydra. An early sign that Burnley are treating this as a free hit, with nothing to lose, and will come out swinging?
Before kick-off, a minute of solemn silence to remember those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus. Then as Burnley kick off, all 22 players take a knee. Black lives matter.
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The teams are out! Manchester City wear their sky blue shirts, while Burnley are in third-choice evergreen. The fans: they’re not really here. We’ll be off in a minute.
Sean Dyche on Burnley’s lack of manpower. “It’s a definite challenge. You’ve probably seen our squad for this evening, we’ve got some things going on which are hard to put together at the moment with contracts and stuff, so we’re a bit skinny on numbers. And City are a tough side obviously. It’s a strange situation. The chairman ... I’ve advised what we should do and there’s been a long delay in getting things done, so the players who haven’t been offered things have made a decision to not finish their contracts for the next ten days. It’s been tough on the group. I am trying to get the situation sorted out, but it’s not easy. I would have kept all of them, at least in the short term, but I don’t sort the contracts out, so. It’s not ideal, but it’s part of management, and we’ve still got a great group here.”
Dyche was in a relatively jovial mood, so it’s hard to tell if all that was a shot across the Burnley chairman Mike Garlick’s bow or a simple honest report of the club’s struggle to sort things out during strange, unprecedented times. Provocatively naming two goalkeepers on the bench, with only seven of the permitted nine spots filled, suggests it’s probably the former, but time will tell.
Pep explains his much-changed XI. “We miss the fans, it is better to play with people, but it is what it is. We will adapt but we cannot change it, we have to play. So hopefully people will stay safe, and be careful because the virus is still here. We had two and a half months for everyone to come back fit, but we have been training just once a day, and not much, because we want to keep the players safe. We have three days another game, three days another game, four days another game, so everybody will be part of these games.”
Manchester City are almost completely changed from the XI named for the 3-0 win over Arsenal. Only Ederson, David Silva and Riyad Mahrez keep their places. Phil Foden starts, while Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte sit on the bench.
At least City can name a full complement of nine subs; just the seven on Burnley’s bench. The Clarets are without Aaron Lennon, Joe Hart, Phil Bardsley and Jeff Hendrick, as they’re all out of contract in a few days and nothing’s been agreed by way of extension. Strikers Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes are injured, too, so Matej Vydra and Jay Rodriguez start up front. Josh Brownhill, the £9m January signing from Bristol City, makes his first start for the club.
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The teams
Manchester City: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Foden, Rodri, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero, Bernardo Silva.~
Subs: Walker, Sterling, Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus, Laporte, De Bruyne, Sane, Mendy, Carson.
Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Brownhill, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Rodriguez, Vydra.
Subs: Peacock-Farrell, Pieters, Long, Thompson, Dunne, Thomas, Jensen.
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).
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Preamble
This is a fixture that’s decided the title before. On a tense Monday night back in 1960, Burnley visited Maine Road to face Manchester City in the final game of the First Division season. Harry Potts’ team needed a victory to pip reigning champions Wolverhampton Wanderers to the prize, and deny Stan Cullis’s famous side a title hat-trick. Here’s how it panned out.
Brian Pilkington put Burnley in the lead after four minutes. Joe Hayes equalised for City in short order, but 20-year-old reserve winger Trevor Meredith restored Burnley’s advantage on the half hour, polishing off a ball that had pinged loose of some penalty-box nonsense. City pushed for a second equaliser, but Denis Law missed a second-half sitter and Alan Oakes shot straight at Clarets keeper Adam Blacklaw when one on one in the last minute. Burnley became champions of England for the second time! City finished 16th.
Thanks to Liverpool’s failure to win at Everton last night, there’s now no chance of this fixture deciding the title once again. But to all intents and purposes it will, should Pep Guardiola’s side fail to dispatch Sean Dyche’s team this evening. If Burnley get anything out of this, Liverpool will be nudged ever closer to the finishing line and will be able to seal the deal on Wednesday night against Crystal Palace. Everyone in red is claret now.
It’s one heck of an “if”, though. A draw tonight is best priced at 8-1, while you can get 24s on a Burnley victory. That should come as no great surprise when you consider that Burnley were dismissed 4-1 by City on their own patch back in December; that they’ve lost both of their last two visits to the Etihad 5-0; that they’ve lost eight of their last nine games against City; and that they’ve only won once in their last 23 meetings with the Citizens.
Even worse, they’ll be without first-choice strikers Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood. It’s most likely, then, that City will be closing the gap on Liverpool at the top to 20 points tonight, in which case Liverpool will have to wait at least another week for a chance to secure the title ... when they visit the Etihad themselves on Thursday week. But Burnley go into this match comfortable in mid-table, fresh from their break, and on the back of a five-game unbeaten run before lockdown. So you never know. It’s second versus 11th. It’s yet another night of potentially decisive Premier League action. It’s on!
Kick off: 8pm BST.
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