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Manchester City kept up the pace in the Premier League with a 3-1 win over Burnley that saw Erling Haaland return after 8 weeks out with a foot injury. The striker replaced Kevin De Bruyne with 19 minutes remaining, after the Belgian made his first start since rupturing his hamstring at Burnley on the opening weekend of the season.
The problems were then in the bag. A brace from Julian Alvarez had given Pep Guardiola the look of the first half, at which point De Bruyne made the third hand of the season, before Rodri scored in the first minute of the second half. Ameen Al-Dakhil was consoled by Burnley in stoppage time.
The victory took City to 8 direct wins since their 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at the Etihad on December 16 and moved them above Arsenal in the table.
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READ ALSO: City vs Burnley as it happened
That’s now 115 minutes of Premier League football for Kevin De Bruyne this season, enough time for a goal and three assists for Manchester City’s brilliant Belgian.
De Bruyne has looked in the mood to make up for lost time since his return from hamstring surgery and having produced so dramatically at St James’ Park, he was back in the starting line-up here and back to creating goals.
His assist for Julian Alvarez’s second goal followed a pre-planned regimen (more on this below), but it still required skill and mental acuity to play the pass. So did De Bruyne, who won the free kick, moving away from the center. circle and was fouled by Hjalmar Ekdal after turning it around.
That led to De Bruyne making his third pass of the season and he is now just five behind Mohamed Salah, Ollie Watkins and Kieran Trippier in the Premier League standings. Don’t be surprised if you manage to reach them until May.
Carlos Vicens can rarely have had as much air time as he did after Pep Guardiola celebrated City’s second goal with him against the Clarets. From then on the TV cameras picked him consistently, pushing the set-piece guru into the limelight.
In fact, the former U-18 coach has been making money lately. He spent some time in Abu Dhabi running on set pieces and it’s already paying off. City clinched the FA Cup equaliser at Tottenham thanks to a stoppage-time corner and Guardiola’s resolve. Celebrating Julián Álvarez’s second goal with the economics graduate on the bench of Les Bleus showed his regime in the field of education.
When De Bruyne stood on the free-kick in the middle and 40 yards from goal, he looked for a position for a cut ball inside the box, but Alvarez broke through the Burnley defence and sent the ball to him perfectly weighted. I didn’t expect anything more from the Belgian.
This shows how important it is to be able to resort to a certain goal from time to time, even if you have the best attacking weapons in Europe. City can blow teams up, but if they increase the risk of dead-ball situations it only makes them more dangerous, especially in close games, as was the case in north London on Friday night.
That game lasted less than 30 moments of the second half, when Rodri scored City’s third goal and, from then on, the only intrigue was the return of Erling Haaland.
Guardiola waited 19 minutes to score, but for once the Norwegian reminded us that he was lethal. He was desperate to score, but when he cut inside to check and fired a left-footed shot, he shot so hard he had just cut the ball out. sending it away from the box instead of towards goal.
The incident brought a smile to City’s substitutes, who were used to seeing Haaland unstoppable. It’s about the 23-year-old getting rid of the rust in the ring, but it’s only a matter of time before his purpose becomes robot again. .
Matheus Nunes has struggled to create plenty of pace for City since his summer move from Wolves, his ninth start for the club, two of which have come in successive games.
Nunes hadn’t started before the win over Burnley since the game against Everton between Christmas and New Year, however, he brilliantly took on the Clarets and is starting to show some of the skills that convinced City to shell out £51m for him.
He set up the first goal after making an attacking run to get on the edge of a pass from Foden, showing speed to get in front of Hjalmar Ekdal and then composure to find the cross to Alvarez at the second time of asking. By then Nunes had already had a shot blocked after taking up a good position more centrally.
His speed and ability to run with the ball proved problematic for Burnley’s defeated defence and Nunes’ runs created space for De Bruyne. Towards the end of the first half, the Portuguese midfielder passed an indefinite pass to Josko Gvardiol, but his contention was such that De Bruyne jumped onto the pitch and applauded him anyway, encouraging his last spouse in midfield to keep delivering.
When Rico Lewis stopped Connor Roberts after tripping John Stones in City’s penalty area in the closing stages of that game, his teammates stepped in as the Welshman returned something to the teenager.
Roberts showed Lewis away as the academy graduate remonstrated with him, but within an instant he had Nathan Ake and Ederson to deal with, the Brazilian shoving Roberts in the back after he had the temerity to take on Lewis.
That sums up the protective arm that senior players throw around Lewis, even if in the box the 19-year-old doesn’t want help. He was a rare return at right-back and played a comfortable game in that position. sliding into the centre of the box as City relentlessly controlled the game.
With Kyle Walker almost unstoppable this season, Lewis is betting his football more on a starting midfield role, but he remains Guardiola’s full-back prototype in this formula and he showed it against Burnley.