Manchester City vs Burnley Premier League Highlights

The teams

Manchester City: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Fernandinho, Otamendi, Zinchenko, Foden, Rodri, Silva, Mahrez, Aguero, Bernardo Silva.~
Subs: Walker, Sterling, Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus, Laporte, De Bruyne, Sane, Mendy, Carson.

Burnley: Pope, Lowton, Tarkowski, Mee, Taylor, Brownhill, Westwood, Cork, McNeil, Rodriguez, Vydra.
Subs: Peacock-Farrell, Pieters, Long, Thompson, Dunne, Thomas, Jensen.

Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).

This is a fixture that’s decided the title before. On a tense Monday night back in 1960, Burnley visited Maine Road to face Manchester City in the final game of the First Division season. Harry Potts’ team needed a victory to pip reigning champions Wolverhampton Wanderers to the prize, and deny Stan Cullis’s famous side a title hat-trick. Here’s how it panned out.

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Brian Pilkington put Burnley in the lead after four minutes. Joe Hayes equalised for City in short order, but 20-year-old reserve winger Trevor Meredith restored Burnley’s advantage on the half hour, polishing off a ball that had pinged loose of some penalty-box nonsense. City pushed for a second equaliser, but Denis Law missed a second-half sitter and Alan Oakes shot straight at Clarets keeper Adam Blacklaw when one on one in the last minute. Burnley became champions of England for the second time! City finished 16th.

Thanks to Liverpool’s failure to win at Everton last night, there’s now no chance of this fixture deciding the title once again. But to all intents and purposes it will, should Pep Guardiola’s side fail to dispatch Sean Dyche’s team this evening. If Burnley get anything out of this, Liverpool will be nudged ever closer to the finishing line and will be able to seal the deal on Wednesday night against Crystal Palace. Everyone in red is claret now.

It’s one heck of an “if”, though. A draw tonight is best priced at 8-1, while you can get 24s on a Burnley victory. That should come as no great surprise when you consider that Burnley were dismissed 4-1 by City on their own patch back in December; that they’ve lost both of their last two visits to the Etihad 5-0; that they’ve lost eight of their last nine games against City; and that they’ve only won once in their last 23 meetings with the Citizens.

Even worse, they’ll be without first-choice strikers Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood. It’s most likely, then, that City will be closing the gap on Liverpool at the top to 20 points tonight, in which case Liverpool will have to wait at least another week for a chance to secure the title ... when they visit the Etihad themselves on Thursday week. But Burnley go into this match comfortable in mid-table, fresh from their break, and on the back of a five-game unbeaten run before lockdown. So you never know. It’s second versus 11th. It’s yet another night of potentially decisive Premier League action. It’s on!