Manchester City took their time but eventually came out as convincing winners against Burnley in the Premier League.
Two own goals from the unfortunate Maxime Esteve, a goal from Matheus Nunes and an injury time Erling Haaland brace eventually sealed it for City, after an equalising Jaidon Anthony goal just before the break put the result in doubt.
With Liverpool and Chelsea losing this gameweek, it’s been a good weekend for City to gain ground on the other teams challenging for the Premier League
this season.
Here are three things we learned from victory at the Etihad Stadium:
Savinho must earn his new contract
Starting off with a negative, and it’s Savinho.
The Brazilian winger was given a start over Bernardo Silva and Oscar Bobb after his goal in midweek, but he failed to really take the opportunity.
He kept the ball reasonably well, skinned his man a few times and often found himself in a lot of space, but didn’t create anything and was wasteful with his end product.
In other words, it was a very 2024 Jeremy Doku performance.
Bobb replaced him just after Nunes’s goal, and immediately got himself more involved. He was heavily involved in Esteve’s second own goal, and overall just looked sharper and more refined.
I expect either Bobb or Bernardo to start the next game on the right, and with Doku playing like a man possessed on the other wing, it looks tricky for Savinho to find a way back in right now.
But Doku is showing his worth
Speaking of City’s other winger, he’s proving all of his doubters, including me, wrong.
The Belgian has been amazing since the last international break, where he seemingly has a more free roaming role with Nico O’Reilly overlapping down the outside.
Doku has always mesmerized opponents, but his final ball has been lacking. That seems to be a thing of the past, as much more often he now finds a man in the box.
It was a brilliant, deliberate placed pass to Haaland for his first goal, and throughout the game he gave poor Kyle Walker a headache down the left flank.
I’m really pleased both for him and for City; there were always signs given his amazing dribbling that he might well break through under Pep Guardiola, and if he does keep on playing like this then the Blues will have one of the best wingers in the world on their side.
City have their inevitability back
I must confess, I did not watch the game live. Usually I’m at the Etihad, but for this game I followed it on my phone as I was in London to watch Oasis.
But when the score went to 1-1, I was very confident that City would turn it around and win. This time last year, I was more expecting them to go on and lose the game embarrassingly.
The defence has improved a lot even since the September international break. Haaland – and arguably more importantly – Doku are on fire, which has really upped the level of the attack.
Gianluigig Donnarumma is a huge presence in between the sticks, Tijjani Reijnders might need to adapt but is clearly talented and Phil Foden looks back to his best.
Under Guardiola, City are building another winning side, one that has the mentality and aura to expect to win even when suffering a setback.
The Premier League must watch out for the Blues.
