UK Edition
Kevin De Bruyne approaching top gear as Manchester City swat aside Burnley
It has been a season of great frustration for Kevin De Bruyne but there were clear signs here of Manchester City’s playmaker getting back to his brilliant best. It could still be another few weeks before he fully hits his stride after back-to-back knee injuries that have kept him out for four months this term but he was far too good for Burnley.
De Bruyne scored once, was involved in two other goals and looked like a man starting to find his range again. “It’s not easy for players when they’re a long time injured to get back up to the rhythm and pace but this was like the Kevin we know,” Pep Guardiola, the City manager, said. “We need him. He’s so clever with his passes, so aggressive with his game.”
This was City’s eighth successive victory in all competitions and the bad news for Sean Dyche, the Burnley manager, is that his team are back in Manchester on Tuesday to face another side who have also won eight on the spin. Burnley are likely to be without Robbie Brady for the trip to Old Trafford to play Manchester United, too, after he picked up a groin injury.
“I’ve got three very good goalkeepers and I could have done with all three being in the net today,” said Dyche, whose hopes of an upset disappeared when Matej Vydra squandered a glorious chance to equalise shortly after the interval. “They pounced on every mistake we made and they hurt you.”
City are a much more potent attacking arsenal when De Bruyne’s passing is on the money. They might have been fortunate that Kyle Walker escaped with a yellow card for a heavy challenge on Steven Defour a couple of minutes before Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring. Jesus should already have scored before he got in behind Kevin Long, stepped inside James Tarkowski and fired past Nick Pope. De Bruyne’s sublime cross was asking to be steered home but Jesus missed the ball.
Vydra had to score when he intercepted Nicolas Otamendi, after the City defender overran the ball, but could only find the side-netting and not long after it was 2-0. Bernardo Silva’s deflected shot from De Bruyne’s pass beat Pope and thereafter Burnley imploded. De Bruyne fired into the bottom corner from 20 yards from Riyad Mahrez’s pass and the Belgian was also involved in the fourth, drilling over a cross that was turned into his own net by Long.
It would get worse for the Burnley defender. Long held off Silva in the area in anticipation of Pope coming for the ball but the goalkeeper remained rooted to the spot and Long was penalised for obstruction. Sergio Aguero slotted home the penalty. It was embarrassingly easy for City in the end.
Match details
Manchester City (4-3-3): Ederson; Walker, Stones, Otamendi, Danilo; De Bruyne (Foden, 75), Fernandinho (Silva, 66), Gundogan; Bernardo, Jesus (Aguero, 75), Mahrez.
Subs not used: Muric, Sterling, Laporte, Sane.
Booked: Walker.
Goals: Jesus (2), Bernardo (52), De Bruyne (61), Long (73, og), Aguero (85, pen).
Burnley (5-4-1): Pope; Taylor, Long, Tarkowski, Gibson, Ward; McNeil, Defour (Westwood, 77), Hendrick, Brady (Cork ht); Vydra (Wood, 62).
Subs not used: Hart, Mee, Vokes, Barnes.
Referee: Graham Scott.
Attendance: 50,121.
GOAL! Shrewsbury are two up against Wolves
Well, well. This could be the story of the day so far - Luke Waterfall puts Shrewsbury 2-0 up against Wolves, and they have less than 20 minutes to see this out.
Surely the Shrewsbury fans have a chant for him to this tune?
Such a chance wasted (potentially) for Wolves. They are not going to finish in the top six or be relegated, so why not have a proper go? But how often do we find ourselves saying that.
Half-time reading...
I urge you to read Paul Hayward's delightful tribute to the late Hugh McIlvanney. Here is a taste of it:
A personal memory is of sitting up late with him one night in Las Vegas in the build-up to a big fight and listening to him express a fear that younger reporters were lining up to depose him as the profession’s nonpareil. It sounded absurd back then, and it sounds no more rational now, but lots of driven people who have lived in the glow of praise use external threats this way.
Half-time scores
There is no use trying to sugar coat things, that was a fairly rotten 45 minutes of football across the board. Little incident or controversy, and just the three goals. Hopefully teams will realise they want to avoid a replay and things will open up a bit after the break. Burnley won't be too displeased to be just the one down, though.
- Brighton 0 West Brom 0
- Doncaster 0 Oldham 0
- Man City 1 Burnley 0
- Middlesbrough 0 Newport 0
- Newcastle 0 Watford 0
- Portsmouth 0 QPR 0
- Shrewsbury 0 Wolves 0
- Swansea 2 Gillingham 0
GOAL! Manchester City 1 Burnley 0
The resistance lasted 23 minutes as Gabriel Jesus dances through the Burnley defence and fires City into the lead. The Brazilian is enjoying something of a hot streak at the moment, particularly in the cups. That is his 15th goal of the season in all competitions, a fine return considering he often plays second fiddle to Sergio Aguero and has had injury niggles.
Cue Jesus beats Pope headlines.
We're off!
The whistle blows around the grounds and our eight FA Cup fourth-round ties are under way. Derby County defeated Accrington Stanley 1-0 in the lunchtime game.
Brighton vs West Brom team news
Brighton XI: Button, Bruno, Duffy, Burn, Montoya, Stephens, Kayal, Bissouma, Knockaert, Andone, Locadia
Substitutes: Sanchez (GK), Dunk, Propper, Gross, March, Gyokeres, Murray.
Darren Moore makes nine changes to the side that won at Bolton last Monday. Only Rekeem Harper and Hal Robson-Kanu keep their places.
West Brom XI: Bond, Myers, Adarabioyo, Bartley, Townsend, Field, Harper, Hoolahan, Leko, Edwards, Robson-Kanu.
Substitutes: Myhill (GK), Fitzwater, Gibbs, Holgate, Howkins, Tulloch, Gayle.
Shrewsbury vs Wolves team news
Shrewsbury XI: Arnold, Haynes, Sadler, Beckles, Bolton,Waterfall, Docherty, Laurent, Norburn, Grant, Okenabirhie
Subs: Charles-Cook, Whalley, Angol, Vincelot, Holloway, Eisa, Sears
Wolves XI: Ruddy, Bennett, Coady, Saiss, Docherty, Dendoncker, Gibbs-White, Neves, Giles, Costa, Traore
Subs: Norris, Cavaleiro, Raul, Jonny, Moutinho, Vinagre, Kilman
Middlesbrough vs Newport teams
Middlesbrough XI: Randolph, Shotton, Ayala, Flint, Friend, Wing, Mikel, Saville, Fletcher, Assombalonga, Downing.
Subs: Konstantopoulos, Batth, Clayton, Hugill, McNair, Tavernier, van La Parra.
Newport County XI: Townsend, Bennett, O'Brien, Demetriou, Willmott, Poole, Bakinson, Butler, Semenyo, Amond, Matt.
Subs: Pipe, Labadie, Dolan, Marsh-Brown, Sheehan, Hornby-Forbes, Neufville.
Portsmouth and QPR team news
Portsmouth XI: MacGillivray; Walkes, Brown, Naylor, Whatmough, Clarke, Dennis, Donohue, Pitman, Evans, Curtis.
Subs: Bass, Burgess, Haunstrup, Morris, Cose, May, Maloney.
QPR XI: Lumley; Furlong, Leistner, Lynch, Bidwell, Wszolek, Maning, Scowen, Freeman, Oteh, Wells.
Subs: Ingram, Kakay, Hall, Cousins, Osayi-Samuel, Chair, Smith.
Tin-foil homemade FA Cups at the ready...
"There will be a few shocks...let's make sure we're not one of them." Those were the words of Leyton Orient manager John Sitton before his team faced non-league Tiverton in the FA Cup, captured in the seminal 1995 Channel 4 documentary Orient: Club for a Fiver.
I would like to echo those sentiments with eight fourth round three o'clock kick-offs before us, and the chance of a turn up is what keeps everyone interested in the oldest cup competition in the world.
Manchester City's home tie against Burnley is a disappointment for all involved, a run of the mill Premier League fixture likely to result in the processional home victory we have seen play out dozens of times.
Paul Scholes will doubtless have both eyes on Oldham's tie away at Doncaster, while there is a nice tale on Teeside as Newport-raised Tony Pulis faces his hometown club who knocked out Leicester City in the last round. Newport were minutes away from knocking Spurs out last season.
There's another all Premier League tie as Newcastle host Watford - with Arsenal and Liverpool already out, I think Watford might a dangerous outsider to win the competition outright. They are inconsistent but capable of high-level performances against the bigger sides in a one-off game.
The same can be said of Wolves who face Shrewsbury (or Shrooooosbury if you prefer) while Gillingham's reward for beating Cardiff is a trip to south Wales to play Swansea. What chance Newport in the fifth round to continue the theme?
Injuries are biting for QPR as they travel to the south coast to face Portsmouth in the once-ravaged-by-financial-problems-and-Harry-Redknapp's-signings derby, and last but not least Brighton host West Brom.
Team news on the way shortly from the various games, and remember there is Millwall vs Everton and AFC Wimbledon vs West Ham to follow this evening.