Kevin de Bruyne put Man City ahead inside the opening five minutes before Ilkay Gundogan doubled the lead 20 minutes later to seal the win.
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Manchester City produced yet another dominant performance to get the better of Burnley 2-0 in the Premier League fixture at Turf Moor on Saturday. Pep Guardiola’s side went into the match needing to take all three points as second-placed Liverpool had won their match against Watford early in the day to put pressure on the leaders. Fortunately for the manager, his side responded and took the lead through Kevin de Bruyne inside the opening five minutes and then Ilkay Gundogan doubled the lead 20 minutes later to secure the win.
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FULL TIME | We’re back on top! ?
? 0-2 ? #ManCity pic.twitter.com/EhKfKtQ3Wy
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 2, 2022
The visitors deservingly took the lead early in the match when De Bruyne latched on to Raheem Sterling’s pass and drilled a first-time shot into the top corner of Nick Pope’s net. It was the Belgium international’s 12th goal of the season.
Man City continued to push forward for the second and got it on 25 minutes. Once again it was a similar build up move down the right channel which saw Sterling squaring the ball for Gundogan, whose strike took a slight deflection off Kevin Long before going past a wrong-footed Pope and into the back of the net.
Guardiola’s side has some back-to-back high-voltage fixtures coming up against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool. City will next face Atletico in the Champions League quarter-final first leg fixture on Wednesday before taking on Liverpool in the crucial league fixture on April 10th. Therefore City rightly appeared to ease off after going 2-0 ahead, although they did continue to create chances.
Against the run of play, Burnley nearly pulled one back when Maxwel Cornet’s header was cleared off the line by Nathan Ake. Although Cornet was flagged off-side, the move spurred Burnley to press for a goal. But City comfortably held on to the two goal lead to take all three points and move a point clear of the Reds.
Elsewhere, Brentford produced probably their best performance of the season to thrash third-placed Chelsea 4-1 at Stamford Bridge. The visitors produced an impressive first-half performance but unfortunately went into the break goalless and then trailed three minutes into the second half.
Central defender Antonio Rudiger, whose name has been linked with Barcelona, fired an absolute thunderbolt from 35 yards to break the deadlock. But the visitors equalised within two minutes of the goal. Vitaly Janelt blasted in from the edge of the box.
It was proving to be an end-to-end encounter as both sides were playing an attacking brand of football. But it was the Bees who then struck again with a brilliant breakaway move led by Bryan Mbeumo, who provided the assist for Christian Eriksen to tuck in from close range.
Janelt struck again on the hour mark from a brilliant pass by Ivan Toney to take a two-goal cushion. Although Chelsea desperately tried hard for a goal, the visitors sealed the win with a fourth goal from Yoane Wissa in the 87th minute.
Manchester City vs Liverpool: Talking points from the action-packed draw
