Five star Man City Sweep Burnley Aside

Hunting Like a Pride of Lions

I once was lucky enough to spend time in Kenya and whilst there in the early afternoon sunlight saw a group of lions torturing an antelope. They kept the antelope trapped under their legs and every now and again let it go, only to stop it with a lazily outstretched paw every time it thought it had made its escape.

Yesterday City played a lot like that, prowling the corners of the low sun struck Etihad, lazily toying with Burnley, who for all intents and purposes just wanted the game to end. They will have other days and other games, but today was nothing much to write home about in the annals of Burnley history. When they come to write their review of the season, yesterday will be nothing more than a footnote.

Considering they just seemed to want the game to be over for at least 89 minutes of the match,they worked hard to still want to spend a lot of the game lying down and very slowly letting the clock run down. If these players were actually to be paid for the amount of time they had the ball in play they would have barely covered the cost of a matchday programme.

Its not that Burnley were terrible, they just lacked any class capable of opening our side up. They are full of earnest, honest endeavour. They are like Liverpool without any £70 million players.

At no point in the game did I feel we were threatened. With their 26% possession and no threats on goal, it was Ederson I felt most sorry for. That’s why he wanders about with the ball sometimes, like a teenager on a mission to the shops. All hunched shoulders and prowling about, going nowhere in particular. Is it just me or is he walking more like Liam Gallagher with every month he spends in Manchester?

When the team sheet was announced I couldn’t work out exactly how City were going to line up. Luckily it was apparent within minutes of the start that neither could Burnley.

With Ederson in goal, and a defence of Benjamin Mendy, John Stones, Aymeric Laporte and Vincent Kompany with Fernandinho in front, I wasn’t sure if this was a back 3 or not. It turned out that Stones was right back and Mendy was some kind of wing half from the 1950s. For large parts of the game Fernandinho was the City player who was furthest back, and I count Ederson in that.

Jonathon Moss is a premier league referee with an uncanny knack of making the easy look difficult. Its probably a sign that he had a good game by his standards, when by the end both sets of fans were unhappy.

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Within the first minute he got his first decision wrong. Kompany scythed down Aaron Lennon in a panicked attempt to prevent being caught out miscontrolling the ball. Kompany was lucky to escape with a yellow card, for it that waist height tackle had been committed against one of our players I would be incandescent with rage. On the touchline Shaun Dyche, Burnley Manager, was probably veering between his normal ginger and bright purple.

City recovered composure and simply started toying with Burnley, gently probing and exploring for an opening. A midfield attack comprising of Leroy Sane, David Silva, Bernardo and Riyad Mahrez was simply too much for Burnley to contend with. We calmly passed the ball under pressure. We patrolled and recovered any lost possession.

Our attacker was pretty Sergio Aguero and he came deep in the build ups, overlapping with the midfield play. The movement was a joy to watch.

Of course sat on the City bench watching this game was the most impressive bunch of substitutes I think I have ever seen: Muric, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Foden, Sterling, Jesus and De Bruyne. It was as though, not just content with toying with them on the pitch, we were daring them to take the lead; do that and we bring these on.

City had a number of chances to take the lead and were kept at bay by the returning Joe Hart. We cheered his return and hoped his performance was not going to be like it was when he played for City against Barcelona, when he single-handedly kept Messi, who at the time was at the height of his powers, out of the scoresheet. Hart denied Aguero with a reaction save to his right, earning a pat on his head for his troubles. The pick of his saves was probably when he kept out a Silva header, pushing the ball out to Aguero who inexplicably struck the reply over the goal.

The breakthrough game through some lovely interplay on the left side of the penalty area by Sane and Silva. Sane jinked through releasing Silva who struck a low hard cross to Aguero who turned the ball in first time.

The second half started with an increased urgency as though City wanted to get the game over with. Their wishes were met when Bernardo scored the 2nd. Sane again jinked through the defence, but was upended in a tackle which for all intents and purposes looked a certain penalty. In the hesitation which followed Sane sat on the floor, the Burnley players stopped and the ball trickled towards the by line. To everyone’s surprise the referee waved play on, Silva reacted fastest and crossed the ball and Bernardo turned a nice shot past Hart.

The game was then over within minutes as another attack resulted in a corner. The corner looked like it had been over played but Fernandinho received the ball on the edge of the area and seized the opportunity to stroke a trademark sweet strike into the net. When he hits the ball straight and hard it always seems to rustle the net.

Guardiola rested Bernardo and Silva, bringing on De Bruyne and Foden. The crowd enjoyed these players making their way out almost as much as they had the goals.

The change of personnel did little to change the way the match was being played. The urgency had departed and at times it looked like one of those practice rondo sessions. The 4th goal was another where it looked as though we were guilty of overplaying but the ball was played to Mahrez who curled a brilliant shot into the top corner. This was the best game Mahrez has played in our blue to date.

Burnley were agitated and there was some silliness between Matthew Lowton and Sane. Sane was fouled and jostled. The referee failed to deal with this and Sane exacted gleeful retribution minutes later by hacking down Lowton. Sane was booked but probably secured full retribution minutes later when he scored, leaving Lowton for dead after having been found by Mendy.

This was a canter. The pack of hunters circled their prey in the fading sun and tortured it slowly. If it wasn’t for the saves made by Hart this could easily have been a 6 or 7 nil game.

I feel I should also mention Steven Defour who returned from injury to this game and looked comfortable. Capable of playing in a much better team. As did the Burnley number 5, James Tarkowski. He looks solid and I would be surprised if he remains beyond January.

After the match we stayed behind to clap Joe Hart and our players from the pitch. I am not sure what he was thinking, but I suspect he is glad he does not have to face us very week. City played well today and still did not need to reach the top gears. I hope these are still there because we have some difficult looking fixtures coming up. But the return of De Bruyne and the seamless way Foden fitted into this performance give hope we can beat what ever is put in front of us. Bring it on!