BURNLEY 0, MAN CITY 2
It is beginning to look Manchester City’s title to lose after they made it nine straight Premier League wins following their comfortable victory at Burnley where they barely broke sweat.
City moved three points clear of their second-placed neighbours having played one less match, a position of strength for Pep Guardiola’s side.
This was City’s 13th successive win in all competitions as they extended their unbeaten run to a remarkable 20 matches. And they have kept six clean sheets in their last seven games, Cheltenham Town’s Alfie May the only player to breach their backline.
In those 13 victories, City have scored 33 goals and conceded only three as they have reached near perfection at both ends of the pitch.
And they certainly have a liking for Clarets as this was an eighth straight victory against the side from Turf Moor.
There have been four 5-0 scores in that sequence with the goal return 30-1 in City’s favour.
Embed from Getty ImagesCity’s manager was happy, explaining: “It is a good result as always Burnley away everyone knows how difficult it is.
“We did not concede a goal and created more chances so generally I am satisfied. We can do better in general, but n general I have no complaints.”
Guardiola added City were aided by an early goal from Gabriel Jesus while Raheem Sterling added a second in the opening period.
And he was pleased with Jesus’ recent return to form pointing to him scoring the winner against Sheffield United and the opener at Turf Moor.
“We need his goals, but his contribution is fantastic,” he said.
Guardiola added he will enjoy the victory tonight and tomorrow begin thinking about Sunday’s visit to champions Liverpool.
Burnley boss Sean Dyche said: “Manchester City were every good. They’re on a good run of form. They are really sharp in transition in defence and attack.
“They can open you up. We’d like to do better with the goals. Fair play to them. They get their noses in front.
“We defended well in general and stuck to the task.”
City made five changes to the side that edged past Sheffield United in their last game.
Joao Cancelo, John Stones, Rodri, Riyad Mahrez and Sterling returned with Kyle Walker, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Ferran Torres and Phil Foden replaced.
Burnley made two alterations to the side that lost at Chelsea last time out.
Johann Gudmundsson and Jay Rodriguez came in for Robbie Brady and Chris Wood dropping out. Ashley Barnes failed to recover from injury and remained on the sidelines.
In line with the nation, there was one minute’s applause at 6pm to honour Captain, Sir Tom Moore, the NHS champion fundraiser who died yesterday aged 100.
City made a dream start taking the lead in the third minute with their first attack.
Bernardo Silva’s shot was parried into the air by goalkeeper Nick Pope and fell invitingly for Jesus to head home at the far post, his seventh goal of the season and third in the last four matches.
It was the 23-year-old Brazilian’s 75th goal in all competitions for City.
Mahrez, who has scored eight Premier League goals against the Clarets, almost made it nine as an angled shot was beaten away by Pope as it looked as though it might be a long night for the hosts.
City doubled their lead in the 38th minute following a neat build up culminating in Ilkay Gundogan squaring the ball for Sterling to score with a simple tap-in for his 10th goal of the season on his 400th senior appearance.
City were quick out of the blocks at the restart as Joao Cancelo had a shot blocked, Gundogan fired narrowly over and Sterling, put through by Gundogan, saw his shot kept out by the legs of Pope.
They had the ball in the net for a third time, Mahrez poking home Jesus’ cross only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.
Matej Vydra had Burnley’s first goal attempt of the game midway through the second period as he chested down a cross and volleyed narrowly over.
City’s first change saw Oleksandr Zinchenko replace Cancelo.
The match petered out in the latter stages with City in cruise control and Burnley unable make any inroads as they managed only two goal attempts in 90 minutes, both off target.