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 difference against Burnley, who have gone straight back to the Championship.
Mikel Arteta’s team may take encouragement from how City faded after Haaland’s strike but Guardiola is expert in marshalling his squad and after naming 10 of the 11 who started against Arsenal is certain to make more changes for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton. Arsenal will be in league action against Newcastle, also on Saturday.
The victory may prove the decisive one if City do claim the Premier League. Or there could well be twists to come before the trophy is raised.
Burnley began as a 17-1 shot to reel off a famous victory and with Jaidon Anthony tingling Gianluigi Donnarumma’s fingers, after the winger ran along the left and unloaded. Then City took over – and scored, only five minutes in. From deep inside their territory, on the left, Nico O’Reilly fed Marc Guéhi who flipped the ball to Jérémy Doku. The winger’s raking pass split the Clarets’ five-man rearguard and rolled to Haaland who, as Martin Dubravka advanced, sculpted a delicate chip over the keeper and into the left corner.
The calm of the centre-forward’s 35th goal in City colours could be viewed as emblematic of a team firmly in control of the championship’s destiny but what ensued until the break failed to follow this script. The opposite has been true for Burnley for all of a campaign that has been a desperate scramble to flee the spectre of a relegation that, with the half-time deficit, stared straight at them.
Yet their spirit remained, as Kyle Walker illustrated with a curving pass that had Burnley’s frontman, Zian Flemming, running in. Donnarumma, momentarily, went to ground but Flemming dawdled and scuffed wide.
City realised they could not relax so they moved upfield and an O’Reilly header from a corner forced a low save. Before this Rayan Cherki could, too, have doubled the lead but a rising effort was palmed on to the left angle of the goal by Dubravka.
Guardiola will have rued this lack of ruthlessness, especially as Flemming raced in once more. This time Abdukodir Khusanov’s lightning speed allowed him to move across and challenge the Dutchman, who blazed over.
It was disappointing but the Clarets could feel pleased to be only 1-0 down and when Cherki’s long-distance dribble down the right ended in him failing to find Haaland you wondered if Scott Parker’s men might yet have a say in the title’s destiny.
That sense deepened when, near the interval, Haaland screamed after Jérémy Doku’s cross from the left did not come to him, and a Khusanov miscontrol close to Donnarumma’s goal nearly let Burnley in.
Then, James Ward-Prowse swung in a free-kick which O’Reilly missed: the youngster, playing in the injured Rodri’s position, recovered to stop Bashir Humphreys and Hjalmar Ekdal equalising but as the teams wandered off Guardiola surely prepared a terse word for his players.
This would remind them of what was at stake and how Sunday’s hard-fought 2-1 win over Arsenal could not be allowed to go to waste by ending the night without the desired result of a victory that would take them above the Gunners.
With Rayan Aït-Nouri the sole change from Sunday, were City tired? Guardiola sent the same XI out for the second half so, maybe, the Catalan did not think so. A surer diagnosis was of a casualness and slowness to the play which needed remedying.
Here, Rodri’s ability to set and control the tempo was missed. “I don’t know yet when he will be back,” said Guardiola. “Day by day we see.” The Spain midfielder has a groin issue picked up against Arsenal.
Dubravka’s goal was also missed – badly – by Antoine Semenyo when put clear by Cherki, so the winger holding his head in despair was emblematic of City’s flatlining. They needed to jumpstart proceedings and Haaland went close, via a right-footed pea-roller that pinged off Dubravka’s right post.
The resistance of Burnley could be admired, too. They squeezed up to City to compress time, and Parker’s deep backline stymied them from breaking in behind, as illuminated by a speculative Doku 20-yard shot that ballooned over. Guardiola, seeing enough, removed Aït-Nouri, for Nico González, and Semenyo for Savinho. Instantly the latter forced a save, as City finished by queueing up to score but Haaland scoring and O’Reilly missing clear chances was the story of this tight win and three vital points.
