The players have put a real shift in tonight
It was Manchester City’s night at Turf Moor with two first half goals giving them a 2-0 victory, a ninth in succession in the Premier League ahead of their game against reigning champions Liverpool.
Manager Pep Guardiola, who has only dropped two points against the Clarets since becoming City manager in 2016, was delighted although he admitted: “We struggled a little bit to break, the first pass, the first movement. The first fifteen minutes of the second half was our best football. Unfortunately we could not score a third or fourth goal. In the last fifteen minutes we passed the ball without the intent to attack, just to control.”
He added: “Right no we enjoy this game and tomorrow we start to think about the next game. It is the same points, but against a contender. At the end the aim is to be champion. Against teams lower in the table people can say it’s guaranteed but we know how difficult it is. We had to do our best.”
Beaten at home for a second time in 2021, Sean Dyche fully understood what his players were up against tonight. “Those are the realities of the division, so I’m not frustrated,” he said after the game.
““When you play against the top sides and they deliver a top performance, it makes life very hard. I wouldn’t say they were necessarily on top of their game, but they were very good and controlled large parts of the game. It’s already difficult, but we gave them an easy start, which is not like us, but then we quelled the game a little bit, but they got a good second goal in transition and then it’s hard work.
“But I thought our lads gave a pretty good reaction in the second half. We stuck to task and slowed them down and found somewhat of a better control. It’s too grandiose a statement to say we were going to win it, but we calmed their tempo and had little pockets ourselves.
“We didn’t ask as many questions and open them up as much as we’d like, but that’s really difficult against sides like this. We know that’s a challenge we’ve had all season, and it’s the hardest part of the game. That’s why the big clubs spend hundreds of millions of pounds, I can assure you.
“But we’ve found ways of winning games and people can easily forget we’ve come a long way and just taken six points from four really tough games against Liverpool., Chelsea, Aston Villa and Manchester City. I’m not going to over think tonight because that’s a decent return.
“The players have put a real shift in tonight and the habits were good and some of our defending was good, so there’s a lot to pick out of the game, because you are not playing City every week… thankfully.”
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