Man City full of Pep
Young Foden gives a masterclass as City are in no mood to hand over the crown to Reds just yet
MANCHESTER CITY produced a five-star show against Burnley to keep the Premier League title champagne on ice in Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola rang the changes and lost Sergio Aguero before half-time, but City were still far too strong. Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez netted twice, with David Silva also scoring. City’s victory means Liverpool cannot become champions tomorrow night even if they defeat Crystal Palace at Anfield.
And should City beat Chelsea on Thursday, Jurgen Klopp’s side will have to wait until next week when the two giants clash at the Etihad Stadium.
THEIR reign as champions may be ending but Manchester City are determined to make Liverpool wait as long as they can to take the title.
Phil Foden inspired City to this most straight forward of wins over hapless Burnley, which means Liverpool cannot claim the title against Crystal Palace at Anfield tomorrow.
Pep Guardiola’s side can frustrate them at least until the sides collide here at the Etihad next week, if they can avoid defeat at Chelsea on Thursday.
City have been the quickest and the slickest out of the blocks since football restarted and they must be frustrated by all the points they dropped before the shutdown.
This match was football’s equivalent of social distancing and Burnley did not get within a mile of City, let alone two metres. Guardiola has such strength in depth within his squad that he could afford to make eight changes, including a completely new back four.
And, predictably, they were still streets ahead of the totally outclassed Clarets. Young Foden dazzled, scoring twice, to show he is ready to step up and assume David Silva’s wand as City’s new magician.
Veteran Spain legend Silva is not finished yet though and he got in on the fun with a goal, while Riyad Mahrez bagged two.
To be fair to Sean Dyche’s team, this was always going to be a damage limitation exercise because they have been so severely weakened. Dyche could only name seven substitutes rather than the maximum nine because his squad has been so badly ravaged by contract standoffs and injury.
Jeff Hendrick, Phil Bardsley, Aaron Lennon and Joe Hart, whose contracts all expire on June 30, were missing and they have all probably played their last games for Burnley.
Dyche (right) is frustrated with the board’s handling of the situation and the players have refused contract offers for the rest of the season because the hierarchy would not sanction longer-term deals.
Guardiola’s only selection issue was who to leave out and he could afford to start Raheem Sterling, Aymeric Laporte and Kevin De
Bruyne on the bench. It was the predictable one-way traffic and Bernardo Silva wastefully blazed wide right-footed after being played in by David Silva.
The Portuguese made amends when City took a short corner on the right and he found Foden lurking unmarked 25 yards out, who cracked home an unstoppable leftfooted drive past Nick
Pope on 22 minutes.
While many players have struggled since football’s restart, 20-yearold local lad Foden has hit the ground running and he also scored from the bench against Arsenal.
Three minutes before the interval it was 2-0 as Fernandinho found Mahrez with a superb long pass and the Algerian turned Charlie Taylor inside out before shooting home past England keeper Pope. Burnley were beaten and Mahrez added his second and City’s third from the penalty spot in the third minute of first-half stoppage time.
The Blues were slightly fortunate to be awarded a spotkick by VAR for a foul by Ben Mee on Sergio Aguero, which forced the striker out of the action. As devastating as City were, Burnley’s defending was poor and they again left England Under-21 star Foden in too much space from a short corner. He fed Bernardo Silva on the left, who centred for David Silva to slide in and score the fourth on 50 minutes.
City scored five at home to Burnley for the third match in succession when Gabriel Jesus touched Bernardo Silva’s cross on for Foden to convert his second.
Burnley will just be happy they won’t face City again this season.