Man City frustration at Burnley cannot ignore new Arsenal reality

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Manchester City did just enough to beat Burnley and are now top of the Premier League for the first time since August

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22:15, 22 Apr 2026

Five minutes was all Manchester City needed to go top of the league. Martin Dubravka had already saved brilliantly from Rayan Cherki when he grasped nothing but air as Erling Haaland dinked the ball over him and into the Burnley net.

Having downed Arsenal, here were the all-conquering Blues ready to thrash the Clarets and provide further evidence that they are hitting their stride at exactly the right time. Except this is not the City team of old and this is not the seasons of old, so instead Pep Guardiola's side stumbled.

City nearly conceded straight after scoring, cutting short the chant from the away end that City were top of the league. And while the Blues certainly had more than enough chances to add to their lead in the first half, the fact is that they didn't and Burnley also had more than one promising opportunity.

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If you were placing this game in City's season, it would be February or March when they were drawing with the teams currently 16th, 17th and 18th in the table. This game against 19th was always going to be a slog after the high of beating Arsenal on Sunday, and it was particularly difficult for the Blues to lift themselves in this atmosphere.

Having banished memories of last season, City's surge in the title race has thrown up memories of previous wins like the tussles with Liverpool in 2019 and 2022 or the comeback over Arsenal in 2023. At Burnley, if it hadn't been for the 3,000 Blues singing all game you could have been forgiven for thinking we were back in Covid restrictions.

The home stands were far from full and those that had come barely made a noise, meekly accepting the relegation that had been signposted long before this evening. It felt like a training session or a pre-season friendly, completely lacking the intensity of the top-two clash a few days ago - and that was dangerous for City.

Of all the ways to drop points, Kyle Walker surprising them by wheeling up to take a long throw and then darting it short would have been up there on the pain scale. Yet that nearly led to a chance early in the second half and City didn't learn their lessons.

Frustration spread on the pitch, with Antoine Semenyo and Rayan Cherki having a bit of a whinge at each other after the former blazed over from a pass from the latter that he didn't think was quite good enough. Guardiola was so unhappy that he called for two subs as early as the hour mark, with Semenyo one of those hooked and Rayan Ait-Nouri taken off to push Nico O'Reilly back to his more familiar left-back position.

Gianluigi Donnarumma was never really troubled for all Burnley spooked the City defence, and the new league leaders held on. As referee Andy Madley blew for full-time, the fans belted out that they were top of the league but the celebrations from the players were much more reserved.

It was a strange night in what has been a strange season. City missed the chance to pile on the goal difference or send a big message to Arsenal, and if they play like this in future matches they will not win the league.

But they played well enough to beat Burnley, just as days earlier they had played well enough to beat Arsenal. If Guardiola's side can do that over their remaining five games, it will take something formidable from Arsenal to top that.

Guardiola can no longer deny that City are the best team in England, with 33 games played. They will spend a seventh, eighth, and ninth day on top of the table and Arsenal - having spent over 200 days there this season - will have to respond to that when they host Newcastle on Saturday.

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