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Right then, I’m off. Here once again is Jamie Jackson’s match report:
And by way of bonus here’s Sam Cunningham on Bournemouth’s 2-2 draw with Leeds:
Pep Guardiola has emerged to discuss the match (though he spends most of the interview watching replays on a screen behind the interviewer’s shoulder). He too is repeatedly asked why City, who – to remind you – won the game to go top of the league – were so bad.
The chances were there. We created a lot. Make a fantastic game. We did everything. We had a demanding game three days ago. We played a really good game where we missed some goals. There’s no frustration. Why should there be frustration? We won three points. Of course we could do better in scoring goals but the guys did really well. The game was really well played in so many ways. Of course we could have scored more, but we take it.
He’s pressed to explain why this performance was so much less impressive than Sunday’s
I completely disagree. Because we made a better performance in terms of chances than on Sunday. The performance was really, really good.
Jamie Jackson has filed his match report from Turf Moor, and here it is:
Manchester City lead the Premier League for the first time since the opening week so the title is now a riveting five-game shootout with Arsenal.
The Gunners were top for 200 consecutive days until Erling Haaland’s first-half goal ended the run and proved the slender difference to Burnley, who have gone straight back to the Championship.
Much more here:
So we know Burnley and Wolves are going down, while Coventry are going up. But who’s going to be promoted with them? Ipswich took a step in the right direction tonight by beating Charlton to go back into second place, and with a game in hand over all their rivals and the best goal difference outside the Sky Blues. And Ed Aarons was there to see it:
Erling Haaland, tonight’s matchwinner, has a chat in which he is repeatedly encouraged to express disappointment in tonight’s performance and repeatedly refrains from doing so.
We had a lot of chances, but I’m happy we won and that’s the most important thing. It’s all about winning, no matter how. And now, focus on Saturday. Keep going, try to win now on Saturday. 1-0 is amazing, I don’t know why you keep asking. I’m super happy, and as they sing we are top of the league so be happy.
Manchester City go top, Burnley go down
So those three points for City take them above Arsenal on goals scored, while those no points for Burnley mean they cannot now save themselves, and they will be back in the Championship next season. The league table thus looks like this:
Final score: Burnley 0-1 Manchester City
90+5 mins: But nothing comes of it, and the referee blows his whistle to end it!
90+4 mins: Burnley have 60 seconds of pressure, and they have a corner at the end of it. They must score. Dubravka comes forward!
90+3 mins: Khusanov hits a long ball forward and Haaland bursts beyond the backline towards it, but Dubravka comes out of his penalty area and takes control.
90+2 mins: Not another City corner. We’re midway through four advertised minutes of stoppage time.
90+2 mins: Cherki sprints into the area and checks onto his left foot, at which point Florentino does really well to get a foot of his own in the way.
90 mins: Incredible miss from O’Reilly! Bernardo Silva’s shot deflects to him, in front of goal, five yards out and with nothing much to do except smash it in. He kind of gently, apologetically flubs it to Dubravka.
90 mins: Really this has felt like a game in which City were always going to do precisely whatever they needed to.
89 mins: Another shot from Haaland. Bernardo Silva’s shot deflects off Esteve to the City striker, but his effort is underpowered and Dubravka gathers.
87 mins: More substitutions, Tresor and Edwards coming on for Anthony and Laurent.
86 mins: Yet another City corner, and this one is kind of cleared, City recycle the ball, faff around on the edge of the box for a bit and finally play it back to Nico Gonzalez, who shoots just wide.
84 mins: Having started the night in midfield before moving to left-back after Ait-Nouri’s substitution, O’Reilly now seems to have redeployed to the attack.
82 mins: Two more Burnley substitutions see Flemming and Humphreys go off, and Broja and Florentino come on.
80 mins: Chance! Well, of sorts! Cherki pulls back to Haaland, but the ball comes to him at knee height, a bit behind him and very quickly, and he can’t improvise a shot on target.
79 mins: City win their 804th corner, but they take it short, mess around for a while and don’t achieve very much.
76 mins: Nearly a thing for Burnley! They break and it’s two on two briefly, but the ball is played to the feet of Flemming and that, in this game at least, is where attacks go to die.
76 mins: The City fans make their own entertainment, with a chorus of Blue Moon. Their team continue to control the game in a strangely dull way.
73 mins: The second half has been a bit slow, really, with neither side showing much urgency. But Burnley must score if they are to keep alive their slender hopes of avoiding relegation, and presumably desperation will have to set in at some point.
71 mins: Burnley take off Tchaouna and bring on Lyle Foster to bolster their attack.
71 mins: That corner leads to another corner, which leads to a Cherki shot, dragged wide from 25 yards.
70 mins: Save! Doku’s cross somehow evades Haaland but it runs through to Savinho, whose low shot is turned round the post.
68 mins: Cherki flicks the ball up and tries to pop a little loopy cross into the area, but it hits a defender and only loops as far as Dubravka.
65 mins: The night’s first substitutions, and they see City take off Ait-Nouri and Semenyo, and bring on Nico Gonzalexz and Savinho.
64 mins: Ward-Prowse plants a foot on top of one of Bernardo Silva’s inside the penalty area. Entirely accidental, clearly, but the Portuguese goes down. Nothing doing.
63 mins: It’s a challenge, this, for the liveblogger. Ordinarily when a team starts an attack you’ll wait for it to finish before posting an update, but sometimes with City this can take five minutes or so.
60 mins: Then at the other end Ward-Prowse’s free-kick is partially cleared, allowing Hartman to demonstrate what happens when he has a wild swing of his left boot. Goal kick.
58 mins: A wild swing of Doku’s right boot from 20 yards or so sends the ball whizzing over the bar. Guardiola looks disgusted.
55 mins: Haaland hits the post! Esteve’s tackle takes the ball away from Semenyo but sends it rolling to the giant Norwegian, who prods it across goal and out of play off the outside of the far post.
53 mins: It’s been a bit scrappy thus far, this half. City yet to rediscover the extreme composure they showed in the first, and/or Burnley disrupting them more successfully.
50 mins: For a moment it looks like Flemming’s flick is going to release Anthony, but Khusanov and Matheus Nunes combine to snuff out the chance at the expense of a corner.
49 mins: Cherki runs with the ball towards the Burnley area from halfway before passing a little too far ahead of Semenyo, who stretches to control and then stretches again to shoot over the bar.
47 mins: Burnley give the ball away in their defensive third, but City only convert it into an optimistic Semenyo shot, which hits a defender before it can not particularly worry Dubravka.
46 mins: City do in the end turn up, allowing Burnley to restart the game.
Burnley’s players are back out, and waiting for City to turn up for the second half.
In tonight’s other Premier League game it’s currently Bournemouth 0-0 Leeds United. Niall McVeigh is providing regular updates from that one, and games across the Football League, here:
Just the 66% of possession for City, and 13 shots (six on target) to Burnley’s five (one). By almost any metric it’s been extremely one-sided. But for all that Flemming has twice been played clean through, or near enough. There’s not a lot of hope here for Arsenal, but there isn’t none either.
Half time: Burnley 0-1 Manchester City
45+3 mins: That is half time, and City take a slender lead into it.
45+1 mins: There’ll be two minutes of stoppage time, and they start with a free-kick on the right and then, when it’s sent into the area but refuses to drop to either Humphreys or Ekdal, a corner.
45 mins: Quite an odd half of football, this: 10 wild minutes at the start, and then 35 that have largely involved City players passing the ball slowly between themselves.
42 mins: A lovely through ball to Doku, who crosses towards Haaland, but Esteve gets there first and clears. Haaland roars with frustration. He’s not in the defender-gets-there-first business.
39 mins: A fifth corner for City. They’re absolutely bossing this game, but Burnley have also had two or three decent chances, so there’s life in it yet. For now.
37 mins: Cherki has a bad first touch. I repeat, we have witnessed a mildly disappointing first touch from Rayan Cherki.
35 mins: Cherki goes on a 70-yard run into the area before trying to tee up Haaland, but the striker went to the far post rather than the near and Burnley clear. Then Bernardo Silva taps back to Ait-Nouri, who has little time but for all that it’s a fine chance, which he profoundly wastes.
32 mins: He’s OK, and play resumes with a City corner, which Tchaouna clears.
