Burnley vs Manchester City 0-3: Premier League opener – as it happened

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Your Man of the Match! 👊

🟣 0-3 ⚪️ #ManCity | @EASPORTSFC pic.twitter.com/SFhtLSqImY

— Manchester City (@ManCity) August 11, 2023

Honestly, we’re running out of superlatives for him.

This was a typical Haaland performance in that beyond the goals, he hardly impacted the game. He’d gone scoreless for six games and there was the tiniest smidgeon of concern over his form, but he showed it today it was nothing more than a minor blip.

Second-season syndrome? What’s that?

As far as Premier League openers go, this wasn’t a classic.

City eased to a win here, never going past the second gear.

Meanwhile, it’s tough to assess how Burnley will fare on their return to the top flight based on their performance here.

Manchester City get their title defence under way with a convincing win.

FT: Burnley 0-3 Man City

On: McAtee

Off: Walker

90+5 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

And it’s a red! Zaroury is off!

90+4 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

Zaroury slides in from behind and clips Walker. It’s the first booking of the game.

VAR check to see if it should be a red.

The referee is called to the screen to have another look … this could be interesting.

90+3 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

Brownhill replaces Sander Berge and Nathan Redmond comes on for his Burnley debut in place of Foster.

Six minutes of added time.

90+1 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

Foden went close with an effort from the edge of the box, and Alvarez came close to finding the back of the net with a shot that went just wide of the post.

89 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

In the first half, Man City defender Lewis was struck by a lighter thrown from the stands.

As we speak, another fan has tried to run onto the pitch but was apprehended by the stewards before he could do so.

We are aware of an incident that happened in the first half of the match where a missile was thrown at Manchester City player Rico Lewis.
This is unacceptable.
The person responsible has been identified and removed from the ground by the police.
Any individual found guilty of…

— Burnley FC (@BurnleyOfficial) August 11, 2023

Josko Gvardiol comes on for his City debut, replacing Rico Lewis.

Aymeric Laporte replaces Ake, and Cole Palmer replaces Haaland.

No hat-trick for him then.

80 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

If it wasn’t already, the game is all but done now.

Rodri’s goal caps off what has been a typically assured City performance.

79 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

Rodri lashes home!

A free kick from Foden leads to a scrimmage in the box, and the ball finds Rodri, who smashes it into the top corner from close range.

75 mins: Burnley 0-3 Man City

Off: Jordan Beyer

On: Manuel Benson

73 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Man City's players make football look effortless sometimes. On a completely different level

— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) August 11, 2023

Rodri strides forward unopposed and takes a shot from about 23 metres (25 yards) out. It’s well blocked by al-Dakhil.

He should have let it rip a tad earlier.

67 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Anass Zaroury and Bruun Larsen are on in place of Amdouni and Koleosho.

62 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Haaland muscles away O’Shea and lays the ball off for Alvarez whose first touch is poor. It takes him away from goal and his shot is wayward.

60 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Ederson is pure class. My God.

— MrManCity🫧 (@MrManCity8) August 11, 2023

O’Shea’s sliding block on a Haaland shot from the right wins City a corner. It doesn’t amount to much but the ball is worked back into the box, where Foden’s acrobatic effort at the far post is blocked for another corner.

Burnley deal with it easily.

54 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Encouraging start by Burnley, who are sticking to their guns. Foster is seeing lot more of the ball and a nice battle between him and Rico Lewis is developing.

Berge’s influence on the game has grown, too.

50 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Second half kicks off.

46 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Burnley played with bravery and did not look afraid to play their game.

Even after the second goal went in, they didn’t cower and continued to harry the City defenders. Amdouni and Koleosho have created a couple of chances and have impressed with their movement.

Their levels dropped as the half progressed but lots in their first half showing for Kompany to take encouragement from.

Guardiola:Haaland i want more
Haaland: yes boss

An entertaining first half the second half is about to begin pic.twitter.com/tGxDlQMWbh

— olatunji (@olatunji0227) August 11, 2023

City manager seen venting at Haaland as they walk off the pitch, clearly upset about something the Norwegian has, or hasn’t, done.

Haaland’s got two goals in the half but Guardiola isn’t pleased. It seems strange but it’s these exacting standards that have won him so much glory.

Too easy for City in the opening 45 minutes of the season.

Haaland has carried on where he left off last season.

HT: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Burnley have had hardly a sniff of the ball in the last few minutes. City are passing it about completely untroubled. The game’s tenor is significantly lowered.

45+4 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

The first half will see an additional five minutes with De Bruyne’s injury having a role in time added on.

45+1 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Haaland has had just nine touches in the game so far, the second fewest among the 22 players on the pitch.

Yet he’s already scored twice.

41 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

Haaland gets his second with a stunning finish.

He receives the ball on the turn from Alvarez in the box and with hardly a glance at goal, he smashes it into the top corner.

Two goals for Haaland and we’re still in the first 45 minutes of the season!

35 mins: Burnley 0-2 Man City

“Boring, boring City”. That’s what the Burnley fans are chanting as City consolidate possession after a nervy passage that saw the Clarets go close on a couple of occasions.

They are all camping outside the Burnley box now, patiently trying to squeeze out an opening.

It’s been good content so far at Turf Moor.

33 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

Rico Lewis’s pass back to his central defenders is intercepted by Amdouni who skips past Akanji and was through on goal before Rodri nipped in from behind to get a touch and stymie him.

28 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

De Bruyne’s injury has altered City’s shape. Foden has moved to the right, Alvarez has gone on the left and Bernardo has moved more central.

25 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

De Bruyne’s night has ended and he’s replaced by Matteo Kovacic, who is making his Premier League debut for City.

23 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

The Belgian is on his haunches and the City physios are treating him.

He’s handed the armband to Walker and appears to be going off.

22 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

Amdouni receives the ball on the edge of the box and darts inside before taking a shot on his left from 18 metres (20 yards) out.

It’s straight to Ederson, who mops up easily. Burnley’s first shot on target. They’ve raised their tempo.

19 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

Beautiful piece of play by Burnley.

They pass it well amongst themselves and work it up into the City box rather silkily. A cut back from the right finds Koleosho, who can’t get over it and sends it miles wide.

Encouraging move that draws cheers from the Turf Moor crowd.

16 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

City have hardly broken a sweat here and are moving the ball around with authority.

De Bruyne is popping up all over the pitch. He finds himself down the left, crosses over to Haaland who shins it over the goal.

12 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

Burnely want a penalty after Akanji drags back Amdouni in the box.

VAR checks it and quickly rules it out.

That was a 50-50 – won’t be surprised to see offences like that penalised later on in the season.

8 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

It’s Haaland, who else?

De Bruyne swings a cross across goal that finds Rodri at the far-post, whose header back into the middle is volleyed into the bottom corner by Haaland.

That did not take long.

3 mins: Burnley 0-1 Man City

And we’re off.

1 min: Burnley 0-0 Man City

Less than five minutes to kickoff.

No team in the history of the Premier League has won four successive titles.

Achieving this bit of history could be used as motivation fodder by Guardiola to gee up his side for the new season.

They again begin the season as favourites and you sense that the only thing that can stop them is: themselves.

23y 206d – Burnley's starting XI has an average age of just 23 years and 206 days, the youngest line-up they've ever named in the Premier League and the youngest a manager – Vincent Kompany – has ever named in his first game in the competition. Bold. pic.twitter.com/kaUV0J7rhN

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 11, 2023

Under Sean Dyche, Burnley built a reputation for their rugged, attritional style of play. It hasn’t been pretty but they got the job done.

At Turf Moor, the ball was hardly ever played along the grass – it was long ball and crosses galore.

Since Kompany took over last year, things have changed. Physicality has been replaced with possession. Nimble playmakers picked in place of hunkering midfielders. The football has been exquisite. They broke the 100-point mark on their way to winning the Championship and scored an incredible 87 goals in the season.

However, it remains to be seen whether they’ll be able to replicate that style in the Premier League.

Burnley’s last win over Manchester City came eight years ago courtesy a George Boyd half-volley.

Manuel Pellegrini was City’s manager, Edin Dzeko started up front with Kun Aguero, and Jesus Navas was on the right-wing.

In the 16 meetings since, City have won 15 and drawn one.

To say the matchup has been skewed is an understatement.

The last three meetings between these two sides in the Premier League have all ended with City winning 2-0.

The most recent came in April 2022, where first half strikes from Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan got City over the line.

Zeki Amdouni, Sander Berge, Luca Koleosho, Dara O’Shea and James Trafford all make it to Burnley’s starting XI in their first game back in the Premier League.

Trafford, who starred in goal for England in their U21 Euros triumph earlier this summer, is one to keep an eye out for.

The fact that he’s up against his former club today, who he left for 15 million pounds ($19m) could bring an added level of motivation.

Rico Lewis, Kevin de Bruyne, Phil Foden and Ederson return to Man City’s starting lineup after missing the Community Shield loss to Arsenal last Sunday.

Julian Alvarez holds his spot in the XI, playing behind Haaland, who, it’s worth pointing out, has not scored in his last six games.

Burnley: Trafford, O’Shea, Beyer, Al-Dakhil, Roberts, Berge, Cullen, Koleosho, Vitinho, Foster, Amdouni.

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Ake, Akanji, Lewis, Rodri, Silva, Foden, De Bruyne, Alvarez, Haaland.

In an attempt to deal with a decline in effective playing time, the league will be adding more minutes at the end of each half to make up for stoppages for goals, substitutions, celebrations, time-wasting and other things.

The Premier League is predicting games will last, on average, 3-minutes-and-23-seconds longer than last season.

Sunday’s Community Shield, when Arsenal beat Man City on penalties, showed the significance this can have. Arsenal scored its equaliser in the 11th minute of stoppage time to take the game to a shootout.

Some players have spoken out against the rule changes.

Read more: Varane says players’ welfare ignored over added time rules

The head-to-head record does not bode well for Burnley, who have won just one of their last 23 league matches against City – with 16 of those losses and six of them draws.

City have beaten Burnley in 11 consecutive games in all competitions, scoring 40 goals and conceding one in the process. When they last played each other back in March at the Etihad, City beat the Clarets 6-0 with Haaland scoring a hat trick.

It’s six games – if the Community Shield is included – and counting since Erling Haaland last scored a goal for Man City.

Have defences figured out a way to stop last season’s record top scorer in the Premier League, with 35 goals? Or is this just a blip for a striker who took scoring goals in English football to new levels?

Haaland slowed down at the end of last season pretty much once City had the league wrapped up, with the drought also taking in the wins in the FA Cup final against Man United and the Champions League final against Inter Milan.

It would be no surprise though, if he gets back up and running against Burnley at Turf Moor.

Burnley could give debuts to summer signings such as Zeki Amdouni, Sander Berge, Dara O’Shea, and James Trafford.

Michael Obafemi, who has joined Burnley permanently after a loan spell at Turf Moor last season, has been ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Guardiola said that new signing Josko Gvardiol, who was signed for 90 million euros ($99.15m) from Bundesliga club RB Leipzig last week, could make his debut against Burnley.

“He’s ready. He’s settled in well. Nathan Ake is ready too,” Guardiola said, after Ake missed the Community Shield loss to Arsenal last weekend with a minor injury.

Ilkay Gundogan’s replacement Mateo Kovacic, signed from Chelsea, is also set to start.

Kompany took charge of Burnley last season, guiding them to promotion after winning the second-tier championship, with Guardiola saying that the Lancashire club had been completely transformed under the Belgian.

“Newly promoted sides have the energy and the dream to have a good season. Vinny knows us really well, he did an incredible job last season,” Guardiola said.

“He has changed completely the way Burnley were playing with Sean Dyche and destroyed the championship. He has made an incredible job, it will be a tough, tough game.

“The first game for the champions is so difficult. You need time to reset and we have to come back to where we were. That is a question of time.”

For City coach Guardiola and his Manchester City players, the comedown has started from the club’s greatest-ever season.

“We climbed the highest mountain with what we have done,” Guardiola said Thursday, in reference to City winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League for a rare treble. “The last two days, we came down the mountain.”

The new season starts in earnest on Friday when City opens the Premier League with an away match against Burnley, and it means a 10-month slog begins again.

Guardiola knows that a new 10-month slog is beginning and says life may never be as good for City again.

“I don’t think it will be possible to do again what we have done last season,” he said. “It’s once in a lifetime. So I said to the players, ‘Forget about it.'”

“There will be a lot of difficulties,” Guardiola added, “to climb as high as possible the mountain and we will see that our football, our behaviour, our mentality, will dictate how the season will be. What we have done remains in our hearts, our minds. How nice it was. But it’s over … it’s almost impossible to repeat.”

Kompany believes Burnley are on the cusp of signing a future England international in Aston Villa midfielder Aaron Ramsey.

The deal for the 20-year-old is expected to be completed soon and Kompany, having seen Ramsey during loan spells with Norwich and Middlesbrough, is excited by his target’s potential.

“The latest I’ve heard is that we’re close,” said Burnley manager Kompany, speaking during a pre-match press conference on Thursday. “He’s not our player yet but I hope he will be soon.

“Those who have followed the championship and know a bit about the up-and-coming talents in English football (know his potential). He will be an England international for me, it’s just a matter of time.”

Norway midfielder Sander Berge was the latest off 10 pre-season signings to arrive at Turf Moor on Wednesday after moving from fellow newly promoted side Sheffield United.

“Sander Berge is a player with Premier League experience, which is important for us,” said Kompany. “We don’t have a lot at the moment.

“He’s a player with size, technically good, able to receive the ball either in the first phase or in between the lines a little bit higher up. And a player who we hope we can bring to his full potential.”

Burnley began their pre-season training before Guardiola’s men had even completed their treble.

“I’m sure after winning the treble he’s all right starting the season slightly behind,” said Kompany with a smile.

“It’s probably the best challenge you could ever ask for. I want the team to embrace this game and hopefully the fans can do the same.”

Kompany remains close to many of City’s staff, including Guardiola.

“There’s been an awkward month where there was just congratulations flying back and forth between a lot of people,” said Kompany.

“They are people that I’ve worked with and lived with for many years in my life. The contact will always be there. Now for a minute we have to put everything behind us and just go toe-to-toe, and we’ll try and do the best we can.”

Hello and welcome to our coverage of the first game of the new Premier League season, as defending champions and treble-winning Manchester City travel to newly promoted Burnley.

City are starting their campaign to win an unprecedented fourth straight English top-flight title. But Guardiola’s side travel to Turf Moor without former captain Ilkay Gundogan, who left for Barcelona, and Riyad Mahrez, who has signed for Saudi side Al Ahli. Star striker Erling Haaland is also on a six game goal drought.

Burnley, who won the Championship by 10 points last season, have made 10 signings in an effort to bolster their squad for the rigours of the Premier League.

The two clubs last met in the FA Cup quarter-final in March, when Burnley were handed a 6-0 thrashing.

Follow us for all the action in the build-up and during the game at Turf Moor.

Kick-off at 8pm (19:00 GMT).

Read more: What to know about opening day of Premier League’s new season

We. Are. Back. 🤩#BURMCI pic.twitter.com/TD7YoyGnj6

— Premier League (@premierleague) August 11, 2023