Johnny On The Spot: # IMPERIOUS. An unprecedented Manchester City dismissed Burnley on their way to the last 16 of the FA Cup with an accomplished display jam-packed with intricate, decisive pass and move…For the 6th consecutive game in January, the game was played out under the giant question mark of how many goals will they score? For the season, City now have 108 and counting with Newcastle still to play before this month is out.
Pep Guardiola wants to win this trophy and the myriad of permutations in his MCFC lexicon saw more wholesale team changes for the Blues 37th game of the season, 8 squad rotations in total with the luxury of a bench selection boasting 53 goals between them. City hunted in packs from the off and won the the ball back repeatedly. Burnley are a big, physically imposing team but were forced to feed on scraps by City and hopelessly unable to get a foothold in the game.
The champions had to be patient in the face of a fear factor consumed visiting defence and if anything, City’s own back four were culpable of drowsily slowing the game down for periods wherein our forward momentum dropped right off but the brilliant movement of Gabriel Jesus allied to Kevin De Bruyne’s relentless insistence ensured that ultimately, Burnley were completely overwhelmed. Surprisingly, City have played only four home FA Cup matches under Pep Guardiola but have won them all with an aggregate score of 21-2.
City head North East on Monday in roaring form. 8 games unbeaten in all competitions, comprising 6 clean sheets to the tune of 33 goals scored and only 2 conceded – the most extraordinary aspect being that the explosive reignition of our season following the defeat of Liverpool continues to pass under the media radar while Sir Alex Ferguson takes all the plaudits glove puppeting today’s visiting rag caretaker manager. An intensive run of fixtures has seen City restore their mojo and they are beginning to look capable of realising big, big things.
JB’s Man of The Match: Kevin De Bruyne. Carefully reintroduced to the squad this year, Belgium’s talisman’s rehabilitation is complete. He ran this game, capping it with a thumping goal.
The Etihad Stadium
FA Cup Fourth Round
3:00 pm
Attendance: 50,121
Referee: Graham Scott of Oxfordshire
| Manchester City | Burnley | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gabriel Jesus (23'), Bernardo Silva (52'), De Bruyne (61'), Long (73' og), Agüero (85'pen) | |||||||
| 31 Ederson | 29 Nick Pope | ||||||
| 2 Kyle Walker | 28 Kevin Long | ||||||
| 5 John Stones | 5 James Tarkowski | ||||||
| 30 Nicolas Otamendi | 14 Ben Gibson | ||||||
| 3 Danilo | 12 Robbie Brady | Cork 45' | |||||
| 17 Kevin De Bruyne | Foden 75' | 13 Jeff Hendrick | |||||
| 25 Fernandinho | Silva 66' | 16 Steven Defour | Westwood 77' | ||||
| 8 Ilkay Gündogan | 3 Charlie Taylor | ||||||
| 26 Riyad Mahrez | 23 Stephen Ward | ||||||
| 33 Gabriel Jesus | Agüero 75' | 31 Dwight McNeil | |||||
| 20 Bernardo Silva | 27 Matej Vydra | Wood 62' | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 7 Raheem Sterling | 4 Jack Cork | ||||||
| 10 Sergio Agüero | 6 Ben Mee | ||||||
| 14 Aymeric Laporte | 9 Sam Vokes | ||||||
| 19 Leroy Sané | 10 Ashley Barnes | ||||||
| 21 David Silva | 11 Chris Wood | ||||||
| 47 Philip Foden | 18 Ashley Westwood | ||||||
| 49 Aro Muric | 20 Joe Hart | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 21 | Goal attempts | 4 |
| 10 | On Target | 0 |
| 12 | Corners | 3 |
| 4 | Fouls | 1 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 75 | % | 25 |