I can score goals too!51
Ace Alvarez gives timely reminder as Haaland returns
ALITTLE nudge, just to let him know he’s there. Erling Haaland is back but the young pretender, who happens to be six months older, made his point.
Julian Alvarez will score goals. Not as many as Haaland, granted, but a sizeable number nonetheless. Here he bagged Nos 14 and 15 for the season, and won City the game.
A reminder to Pep Guardiola, if one were required, yet someone of Haaland’s standing will brush those off. Alvarez could have finished with a double hat-trick on his 24th birthday and the natural order of things would still be restored once the Norwegian is fully up to speed following a foot injury that presented more complications than first envisaged.
The trick for Alvarez is not attempting to outdo Haaland (below) but make himself indispensable ahead of those who work in Haaland’s shadow. The trouble is, those include Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden. Tough gig.
The two strikers were actually together once Haaland emerged, with 20 minutes left and almost two months since he last featured, clattering into Dara O’Shea within seconds. With one air kick and a mistimed header, Haaland was saving his big contributions for the important nights — plenty of which are now on the horizon.
Guardiola felt comfortable leaving a few out against Burnley, including Kyle Walker who, when he’s not taking a match to his homelife, occasionally plays a bit of football. Not last night, De Bruyne wearing the armband as the appointed captain sat on the bench. Walker’s absence will have been a decision made with rest in mind, rather than a reaction to yet more revelations about the full back’s private life.
Walker has been talking up a repeat of the Treble in recent days, too, and while there is a long way to go until that might become anywhere near reality, the return of all the big guns does bode well. John Stones was among those.
De Bruyne wasted no time in adding to his collection of goal contributions in the league this season with a clever assist after just 22 minutes. He slid a quick pass to Alvarez, who arced his run round the Burnley back line and then dinked past James Trafford, whose return to the Etihad Stadium was an unhappy one.
Trafford had already seen Alvarez poach his first six minutes earlier. Josko Gvardiol deserves some credit for that, negotiating a way through midfield as City struggled to pick past Burnley’s press, and once Foden had clipped Matheus Nunes clear, the champions were in business.
The crowd behind Nunes begged him to pull back for De Bruyne but the Portuguese — who had been City’s brightest spark early on — had other ideas, waiting for Alvarez’s run and presenting a perfect cross to head in. Gvardiol, who appeared more confident than in any of his appearances since costing £77million from RB Leipzig, later flashed wide.
It rather summed Burnley’s campaign up. They started well enough, had a few moments as Lyle Foster just missed the far post, but were undone by simplicity. Vincent Kompany wore a look of resignation once Alvarez wheeled away for a second time. The Clarets hadn’t actually scored against City in their eight meetings before this, going back five years. Kompany had labelled De Bruyne a ‘cyborg’ in the build-up and his former teammate, making a first start since the opening night at Turf Moor, was on another mission.
Even when not directly involved, the old veteran was running things at his own pace. A minute into the second half, Burnley’s appealing high line was pierced by the master, Foden galloping beyond Hjalmar Ekdal and unselfishly pulling back for Rodri on the edge of the box. In a similar move to his Champions League winner in Istanbul, Rodri swept into the near post.
If the game was not already done, City had made sure of it 24 seconds after the break.
Haaland went to warm up, the Etihad rose as one — much as they did for De Bruyne a few weeks back — and the Clarets started finding themselves manoeuvred about. Zeki Amdouni curled over Ederson’s bar and Kompany reached for a triple change — including a debut for David Datro Fofana — yet the flow of this was never going to change.
It was only ever going to be about how many City fancied scoring during a damaging midweek for Kompany, Luton’s unexpected exploits making their position even more precarious, the Clarets now seven points adrift of the team who snatched a draw from them last time out. This was always a hiding to nothing, but something has to quickly change, Ameen AlDakhil’s late consolation altering nothing. Haaland actually struggled to make a meaningful impact after he’d floored O’Shea, making intelligent runs without the service. Doku was wasteful when he danced through challenges only to attempt a difficult pass for Nunes rather than laying off straight to the No 9. Haaland tutted.
He tutted at himself as well after the air kick inside Burnley’s box, prompting laughter on the bench by Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva. A safe bet that neither sniggered to his face in the dressing room.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-2-3-1): Ederson 6.5; Lewis 6.5, Stones 7, Ake 7, Gvardiol 7.5; Rodri 7.5 (Kovacic 87min), Nunes 8; Foden 8 (Grealish 77), DE BRUYNE 9 (Haaland 71, 6), Doku 7; Alvarez 8.5 (Gomez 87). Scorers: Alvarez 16, 22, Rodri 46. Booked: Ederson, Doku. Manager: Pep Guardiola 7. BURNLEY (4-4-2): Trafford 5.5; Vitinho 4.5, O’Shea 6, Ekdal 6 (Massengo 86), Al-Dakhil 6.5; Gudmundsson 6 (Ramsey 59, 6), Berge 6, Brownhill 5.5, Odobert 5 (Zaroury 76); Foster 5 (Fofana 59, 6.5), Amdouni 6 (Roberts 59, 6). Scorer: Al Dakhil 90+3. Booked: Ekdal, Roberts. Manager: Vincent Kompany 5. Referee: Samuel Barrott 6. Attendance: Not provided.