Aguero double earns City 2-1 win at Burnley

“It’s so important our win because it’s so complicated to defend”.

“We analysed Burnley before, they play long balls, play for second balls and they started like that”. The usual tactic is to mass along the 18-yard box, but Guardiola instructed his players to stand 25 or 30 yards from goal, to keep the danger of the second ball shot to a minimum.

FW Sam Vokes, 5 – The Wales worldwide struggled to get in the game with service lacking, but he perhaps should have done better with Lowton’s cross, although it was slightly behind him. Fernandinho best player on pitch for us again imo. Marriner blows up the final whistle, and that is three wins from three Premier League matches on the road for Manchester City.

“I don’t think he’s a victim of anything because he’s come here, he’s had a fantastic time and his maturation has been quite obvious”, said Dyche. Sometimes it is a foul, and sometimes not. But here it’s completely different to other countries.

The win moves City into first place, two points ahead of Chelsea and three ahead of Liverpool, pending the outcome of their weekend matches.

It was certainly tough at the top for City but Fernandinho summed up the significance of the victory when he said: “If you want to be a champion you have to play a game like this”.

“In the last five or six weeks they have played awesome – not just clean sheets but the way they play. We will now prepare for our game against Chelsea“.

Despite being out-played for much of the first half, Chelsea went back to the dressing room on level terms thanks to a sublime curling effort from Pedro just before the interval.

City was held off for a while, but the hosts came unstuck in the 60th minute when Ben Mee and Stephen Ward collided as both tried to clear the same loose ball, which squirted away.

But Dyche was happy with the performance and especially to see a positive reaction after Monday’s 4-0 hammering at West Brom. But it can happen.

As they came again with a final push, they proved exactly why they have been such a handful at home for so many opponents, twice nearly snatching a last-gasp point.

Guardiola said: “I saw their games”.

Not a bad time to get your first #PL goal since 2009… And we created chances as well.

Paul Robinson, handed his first Burnley start in the absence of the previously ever-present Tom Heaton – and a first appearance of any sort in senior football in 26 months – was thrown straight into the deep end with a trio of first-half stops. You’d go in to battle with him every day.

DF Matt Lowton, 6 – The right-back had an outstanding first half, but one fine cross for Sam Vokes before half-time highlighted how wasteful he was when he often got forward. “Forget about age. It wasn’t a major decision for me”.