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Pope 7; Bardsley 6 (Lowton (45th) 7), Long 6, Mee 6, Taylor 6; Lennon 7, Cork 6, Hendrick 6, Gudmundsson 7; Barnes 7, Vokes 7 in frustration as the City fans looked on in total bewilderment. The game should have been dead and buried following Danilo’s opener.
Instead Sterling was substituted two minutes later without a handshake from boss Pep Guardiola and with eight minutes left Burnley equalised through Johann Berg Gudmundsson.
Game over. Two points lost. And TV coverage which will haunt Sterling for the rest of his life.
Guardiola, though, refused to put the boot in and humiliate Sterling in public.
He said: “It wasn’t down to the miss. That’s football. The next time he will score. Today there was one chance and MAN CITY: Ederson 7, Walker 7, Kompany 7, Otamendi 6, Danilo 7; Fernandinho 7; Silva B 8, De Bruyne 7, Gundogan 7, Sterling 5 (Diaz (73rd) 6); Aguero 6 that can happen. We will focus on the next day, focus on improving to become a stronger team.
“That happens. It’s not the first time people have missed one chance but we are sad for dropping two points. But to come here and play as we did is almost impossible.
“We expressed our personality and I am delighted with how we played. But at the top level you have to score goals and we were not able to do that. That’s why we dropped two points.”
Burnley boss Sean Dyche was a relieved man – and in awe of City keeper Ederson after a string of brilliant saves.
Dyche said: “He’s the calmest keeper I have seen. It’s like having Ronald Koeman in goal. How calm is he? He’s one of many, many top players – they have technicians everywhere.
“It’s a very good point. We stayed in it. And when Sterling missed it was such a bad miss that the stadium erupted.
“The team started to grow and I’m very pleased to get that point.” Dyche can say that again after being winless in eight league matches going into the game against City.
He desperately needed to stop the rot – and thanks to Sterling he did.
It looked like Dyche and Burnley were heading for a third successive defeat against the Premier League leaders this season – they were knocked out of the FA Cup by City, too – when Danilo struck in the 22nd minute.
De Bruyne rolled a short corner to Bernardo Silva who in turn slipped the ball to the Brazilian and he curled a clever shot into the top corner to give keeper Nick Pope no chance from 25 yards.
City were in total control with passing movements which left Burnley chasing shadows. No wonder Dyche rushed from the dugout to bark out a heartfelt order: “Make a tackle.”
Easier said than done with City but Burnley gave warning of what was to come when Ben Mee sprung the offside Bernardo Silva M Atkinson Swansea, Feb 10 (A) Leicester, Feb 10 (H) trap to hammer in a shot which Ederson saved brilliantly. Then Mee met Gudmundsson’s corner and powered a header wide of the upright when he should have scored.
City began the second half the way they had left the first – in control and looking good for another three-point haul.
Sergio Aguero, fed by Sterling, saw his shot deflect off substitute Matt Lowton and then nightmare-man Sterling blazed over to leave his City boss furious in his technical area.
You still fancied City, though, to kill the game off until The Clarets found a new lease of life courtesy of being let off the hook by Sterling.
And in the 82nd minute the inevitable happened to punish City for not finishing Burnley off.
Lowton delivered a long ball from just a yard away from Dyche, standing by the touchline, and Gudmundsson never took his eye off it as he thumped the ball past
a startled Ederson. YAYA TOURE is running the clock down on his magnificent Manchester City career as he approaches his 35th birthday.
The giant Ivorian, signed from Barcelona for £24million in July 2010, will always be remembered as a true City legend after winning two Premier League titles, the FA Cup and two League Cups in eight remarkable years.
That haul, of course, should increase by the time the summer comes around.
And as he enters the final four months of his time at The Etihad, Toure recalls how his incredible journey began with a wake-up call – literally – from his older brother Kolo.
The two Toures grew up together sharing a bedroom in their modest home in the Ivory Coast city of Bouake, with Kolo determined to help make his little brother become an international star.
That meant nudging Yaya awake in the early hours of the morning to go out to practice his skills.
Yaya said: “When I was young I was a big, big dreamer. I think in the beginning it was my brother and sometimes we would work together in the morning, early at 5am, I remember.
“He was waking me up to go outside to do some jogging.
“At 5am it was dark in Africa and I said, ‘What are you waking me up for?’
He said to me, ‘You have to listen and you have to learn because with the ball it is interesting but without the ball it is something else’.
“You have to manage both, he said, and you will be better than me. I tried to follow him and I have. I am really grateful for what he did.”
Meanwhile, City legend Peter Barnes has applauded Pep Guardiola for not being held to ransom by “mercenary” Alexis Sanchez.
The Chile striker moved to rivals Man United last month after City withdrew from the chase to sign him.
And Barnes said: “I think Pep made a huge statement.
“I like Sanchez as a player but I don’t think any player is worth £500,000-plus a week.
“And after just giving Kevin De Bruyne a new contract of around £280,000 a week, Sanchez coming in on the reported wages could have upset the apple cart.
“He was also coming in halfway through the season when a lot of the hard work has already been done.
“And also, he is not a player it seems who will accept at times being placed on the bench. He appears to be a bit of mercenary, only moving for the most money.”