City took another massive hit on Saturday, almost certainly putting them out of the title race and into a fight for second place, with a shock 1-0 loss at Turf Moor and Burnley that leaves them just one point ahead of Arsenal, and five points behind Chelsea (who still have two games in hand on City). It was another poor performance from City, with another Kompany mistake taking centre-stage.
City made several changes to the team from the last game against Leicester, with Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy returning at full-back, whilst Kompany regained his place alongside Demichelis after being left out for the game against The Foxes at Eastlands. Wilfried Bony also found himself back on the bench in place of Edin Dzeko, who was favoured alongside Aguero, whilst Fernandinho took the spot of Fernando in the starting lineup in central midfield.
The first half started off with Burnley controlling the possession more than City, with The Blues unable to break The Clarets down, something that they have struggled with a lot at times this season, unfortunately – a hint of Pellegrini’s tactical stubbornness.
Going into the second half, it didn’t take long for City’s weaknesses to be further exposed by Sean Dyche’s side. Demichelis gave Burnley a free-kick on 61 minutes (earning a yellow in the process) by taking down a Burnley player after his opponent had made it past the Argentine. The resulting free-kick was lofted in and headed away fairly comfortably by the reinstated Vincent Kompany, but despite the ease of which he should have been able to head it, he could only get it to George Boyd on the edge of the box, who rifled it home first-time, leaving Joe Hart no chance. It was another bad and avoidable mistake by the Belgian defender, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the top-class finish that would make almost any player proud.
City tried fairly hard to get back in the game, with Pellegrini bringing on Bony, Jovetic and Lampard in the last half-hour in a quest to gain something from the game, but The Blues were wasteful in their chances, whilst simultaneously not creating enough anyway. Late on, City probably should have had a penalty for a foul on Pablo Zabaleta by ex-City man Ben Mee, who didn’t win the ball and seemed to take down the Argentine right-back, although nothing was given. Despite that, City can’t feel aggrieved as much as they might do, for it shouldn’t have got to that situation regardless.
The loss leaves us in a very poor position for the rest of the season, with Arsenal now just 1 point off second, and United could be within 2 points if they win at home to Tottenham on Sunday afternoon. City are now likely to go into Wednesday’s return leg against Barcelona in low spirits, which isn’t exactly an ideal situation. However, a win there could just give us that boost we need to secure second place and, possibly, Manuel Pellegrini’s survival as City manager.
