City visit Burnley on Saturday as they finally get back in action, after over a week of no football. City will be hoping to keep the chase on Chelsea, even if time is running out to catch them and retain the title.
It’s almost three months since we last faced off against Burnley, when they visited Manchester back in December and ended our best run of form this season, in the meantime stopping us from reaching a club record for consecutive wins. That happened in the 2-2 draw at Eastlands, in which City were 2-0 up thanks to Silva and Fernandinho, but after half-time it collapsed. George Boyd scored a goal which may or may not have been onside just after the break, before Ashley Barnes scored an equaliser at a late stage in the game, from which City weren’t able to recover.
This will be City’s first visit to Turf Moor for almost five years on Saturday, although they will have very fond memories of the last time they visited. The Blues got off to a flying start with three goals in the first 7 minutes thanks to Adebayor, Bellamy and Tevez, before scoring three more thanks to Kompany, Vieira and Adebayor again to put City 6-0 in front. Burnley pulled one back thanks to Steven Fletcher, but the final score ended at 6-1 – an impressive win in Mancini’s first season.
City once again go into the match with no absentees, giving them the best chance of winning. It is likely that Vincent Kompany will return after being dropped for the visit of Leicester just over a week ago, with that giving him the chance to reflect on his poor form recently and during this season.
Burnley have very few injuries, but they do actually have people on their injury list, unlike City. Dean Marney and Kevin Long are both out with anterior cruciate ligament injuries, whilst Matt Taylor is missing with a calf injury.
With The Clarets in a relegation scrap at the bottom of the table, and with just 10 games left, Saturday’s game could prove to be quite the challenge for City, which is exactly what they don’t need at the minute. If Burnley’s performance at Eastlands in December is anything to go by, they have fight in them when it matters, and a win could propel them on a trajectory towards safety.
City probably need a win more than ever given Chelsea’s ever-changing position. The current leaders don’t play until Sunday, when Southampton pay them a visit at Stamford Bridge, so if City were able to win on Saturday evening it would put them within 2 points of Jose Mourinho’s team – albeit, with Chelsea having two games in hand before they kicked off. And now, with Paris Saint-Germain knocking Chelsea out of the Champions League during mid-week, Chelsea have no other competition to focus on but the league, already out of the FA Cup and having already won the League Cup this year. That makes the title chase exponentially harder for City.
