THEY ARE EVEN BETTER THAN LAST YEAR!
After Burnley blitz, ruthless City are on course to smash goals record...
‘ The l i nesman apologised f or switching off — but that’s huge. It is hard to take.’ Even so, Burnley players ignored the first rule of football taught from a young age. ‘I told my players to play through the moment and then remonstrate afterwards,’ said Dyche.
Whether the odd second goal will have changed the final outcome is doubtful. Guardiola is building a fortress at the Etihad. His side have won every home Premier League game this season and 17 of 19 their last campaign. Most impressive is that the goals are being shared around. ‘ That’s important, less pressure on Sergio,’ said Guardiola. It was Aguero, though, who opened the scoring after 17 minutes.
The Argentine had already been brilliantly denied by Hart when he converted David Silva’s fizzed low cross from eight yards for his 16th goal at the Etihad from his last 12 Premier League games.
He was then able to take a back seat as his team- mates helped themselves, though he will have been disappointed to fire wide after Hart’s brilliant parry to stop David Silva’s header fell to him four yards from goal. Instead, Bernardo belted No 2 as Burnley hesitated and, in City’s next attack, Fernandinho scored from the edge of the box after Ben Mee had half- cleared Sane’s corner.
It was game over and Guardiola was able to bring off Aguero and the two Silvas with Tuesday’s Champions League game away to Shakhtar Donetsk in mind.
There was no let up for Burnley though. City’s £60 million record si gning Riyad Mahrez curled number four into the top corner and Sane completed the rout by sidefooting Benjamin Mendy’s cross in injury-time. Dyche, who was thoroughly fed up by that stage, thought Sane should not have even been on the pitch by that stage for a hack at Matt Lowton.
‘Unacceptable in everyone’s view,’ said the Burnley manager. ‘It has to be a red card. He kicked Matt for no reason at all, just smashing him around his legs.’
He also thought City defender Vincent Kompany was fortunate to escape with a yellow card for a challenge on Aaron Lennon in the opening minute. ‘Out of control,’ he said.
Guardiola refused to be drawn i nto a war of words over the comments. He is simply content to see his work over three years at City reach new heights, both defensively and offensively. They are top of the table again, unbeaten so far in the league.
‘We didn’t concede again, one shot on target for them and that is a good point from our side,’ he said. ‘ All t he players made a good performance, especially John Stones, playing in a position that is not natural for him [right-back].
‘In my experience, it can take a little bit of time to settle in the first game after the international break but, in the second half, we were solid in our build- up and Kevin helped us make another step, another rhythm. Everyone was at a high level.’
An hour after the final whistle, Hart was back on the Etihad pitch he graced 348 times for City, for a nostalgic look around the ground and a little kickabout with his young son. He had a training pitch named in his honour by City last week. He now knows first-hand his old team are getting stronger and stronger.