Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus struck twice and Rodri scored a screamer in a 4-1 win at Burnley on Tuesday as the champions showed signs they may be able to keep the Premier League title race alive.
The victory takes Pep Guardiola's side, who had drawn at Newcastle United on Saturday, into provisional second spot and back within eight points of leaders Liverpool ahead of the Merseyside derby with Everton at Anfield on Wednesday.
Jesus opened the scoring in the 24th minute and doubled City’s advantage five minutes after the break before a spectacular drive from Rodri and a low drilled shot from substitute Riyad Mahrez made it four.
A late consolation from Burnley substitute Robbie Brady will have annoyed Guardiola, whose side have now gone eight games in all competitions without a clean sheet but, that aside, this was back to business for City.
OUT OF REACH: Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes the title is out of reach for his side. Picture: Carl Recine/Reuters.
The Spaniard, though, dismissed talk of a title race comeback.
"For the distance we have with Liverpool it would be crazy to think about the title, we have to think about the (weekend Manchester) derby, the other competitions, and take this rhythm," he told the post-match news conference.
The way the City players celebrated the win showed they knew they could ill-afford another slip-up after being held at Newcastle United on Saturday.
In recent weeks City have looked well below the standards set in their two straight title campaigns and this season they had already dropped 13 points in their 14 games, only three short of their total for the whole of the last campaign.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/ManCity?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ManCity's Gabriel Jesus with a sublime opener against Burnley!
Watch #PLonPrime now: https://t.co/BSPd2aSoTV pic.twitter.com/HyBjjrMuME
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport)
With only one win in their last five games in all competitions, the pressure on City was real but the gap in quality between the elite clubs and the tightly-packed middle ranks of the Premier League was soon evident.
Reuters