Man City 5 Burnley 0

Aguero 17, B Silva 54, Fernandinho 56, Mahrez 83, Sane 90

MANCHESTER CITY do not need any help to destroy most teams. But when their opponents and the match officials both switch off, they are utterly ruthless.

There is an argument that Pep Guardiola’s all-stars are even better than last season. Five different players scored against Burnley and they are now on course to break last year’s Premier League goals record.

At t he other end, a miserly defence have conceded only three goals in nine games. Guardiola was even praising the ground staff after another emphatic win. ‘Thanks to the greenkeepers for keeping the grass in perfect condition that helps us to play quicker,’ he said.

And yet Burnley will point to one of the strangest goals of the season, City’s second after 54 minutes, that spoiled their afternoon, and that of goalkeeper Joe Hart back at his former club. Burnley had manfully restricted the scoreline to 1-0 when Jack Cork challenged Leroy Sane in the box and the German winger went down.

Everyone stopped playing as referee Jonathan Moss assessed the situation , wi t h Bu r n l e y protesting it was a dive. Except Mr Moss did not award a penalty and David Silva raced to the byline to pull the ball back for Bernardo Silva to fire home.

Two minutes later, Fernandinho had added a third goal and City were home and dry and relaxed enough to send on Kevin De Bruyne as a substitute for his first action since August.

Burnley were guilty of not playing to the whistle for Bernardo’s goal but they were also adamant the ball had crossed the line before David Silva fed him.

‘Sane goes down with the tiniest of touches,’ said Burnley manager Sean Dyche. ‘The ref is going to blow his whistle and then doesn’t. Then a player off the pitch goes on to the pitch and kicks the ball from off the pitch. If that is not confusing for everyone in the stadium, it is certainly confusing for me. I thought it at the time and I’ve seen it back since The best view we can get of it is the ball is out of play.’

Hart, who played 348 games for City, implied that the officials accepted they had got it wrong.