Burnley at TM review
Just a quick review, not much to say really. I'll repeat myself though quickly. If you want a cert for BTTS, pick City. Defence is poor. I'm glad the team have stopped making mistakes and handing goals to teams. Bravo is a lot better. His confidence, building and passing is great. His ability to judge crosses, come for the ball and saving are all up for debate though. He's a good keeper, nothing more than that for me. A great backup in the future, but I think all keepers that warm the bench should be young English, home grown talents. Gunn is wasted at City, Johnstone at United, Pickford was at Sunderland until his loan moves. The list goes on. It's a fault. On with yesterdays game though.
City we're slow and sluggish to start. I said if City can survive to 15 minutes at 0-0 yesterday, then Burnley would sit back until much later in the first half. They scored a great goal, volley from 25-30 yards out and straight into the corner. The build up was poor, a poor clearance out from the hoof, poor closing down but a great strike from Marney. 1-0. Nothing more than Burnley deserved. City slowly built their way in and were patient. It was like City under Pellegrini over the last two seasons. Slow and patient. Sterling swung a corner in, the cross was excellent, Burnley failed to clear and Aguero taps in. 1-1. Classic striker goal that's poaching, much like what Javier Hernandez does. City went in level. Lucky but I was confident. City pressed and scored again. Burnley failed to clear, two defenders clattered each other and Fernandinho nips in to the byline, drills the ball into Aguero, it hits his leg and goes in. Not a pretty goal but City were ahead. Burnley bounced back, pressed, crossed, used headers, physical presence and long balls. They had chances. A chance from a Mee header I think, cleared off the line after beating Bravo and an overhead kick in the last minute, nicely held onto by Bravo. I thought Bravo was excellent yesterday. Aguero was my MoM with a brace and being in the right place at the right time (all good strikers need that quality) though. Burnley were ugly to watch but was so nearly effective. I think they'll do great if they can ruffle feathers against all the teams. They will lose matches but earn hard fought victories too. They'll be difficult to beat this season at home so I am relieved to come back with 3 points, just like Arsenal were. Man Utd and Liverpool have already dropped points against them so I'm content. It's the first time City have gone behind and won this season. That's good. That's what champions need to do. So not a good performance but 3 points, a weeks rest and the HUGE game next Saturday early kick off at the Etihad. Chelsea come to town and City haven't won in 3 matches at the Etihad in the league, that needs to change. You can't win the league dropping points in 4 consecutive matches can you? Chelsea are a title rival, we can't hand them 3 points on the road. City need to win. Chelsea will be happy to keep City at bay, they are away. I'd take a point at Stamford Bridge and they'll take not losing at the Etihad. but City need to make back these points dropped against Saints, Everton and Boro at home. Chelsea in one of the matches where these points can be made back. Arsenal and Liverpool are coming up in December too. Points can be made their too. But City are top of the away form. Winning their last 3 on the road, winning 6 out of 7. It's interesting. I'll be back on Friday with team news, predictions and an overview on life at City. Until then, it's back to normality. Work.
