Manchester City 5-1 Burnley: Report, result and goals as Esteve gives Guardiola helping hand

Manchester City returned to winning ways in the Premier League with a 4-1 win over Burnley that owed much to the misfortune of Maxime Esteve.

City were left to settle for a 1-1 draw with Arsenal last Sunday as they conceded a 93rd-minute equaliser at Emirates Stadium after an atypical rearguard action from Pep Guardiola’s side.

After progressing in the EFL Cup in midweek, City needed only 12 minutes to take the lead against Burnley, who fell behind through Esteve’s 12th-minute own goal.

Jaidon Anthony levelled for the Clarets seven minutes before half-time, but a Matheus Nunes volley followed by a second own goal from Esteve sealed the points for City.

Esteve became only the sixth player to score two goals in the same Premier League, following Wolves’ Craig Dawson against Everton in December last year, and a more conventional brace from Erling Haaland saw City ultimately claim the three points in fine style.

City move up to fifth in the Premier League, five points behind leaders Liverpool after the defending champions suffered their first defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace.

Manchester City v Burnley

Savinho dragged an effort just past the near post from a corner as City made an unsurprisingly fast start, and the hosts were ahead soon after.

Martin Dubravka could only parry Jeremy Doku’s left-footed strike with Phil Foden lurking, and Esteve was unfortunate as he turned into his own net in an effort to prevent Foden tucking home on the rebound.

Doku was thwarted by the face of Dubravka in the 25th minute as City continued to pile on the pressure, with Nico Gonzalez’s follow-up effort deflected wide.

And City paid the price for failing to get a second when Anthony met Quilindschy Hartman’s low cross and saw his effort deflected beyond a stranded Gianluigi Donnarumma and into the bottom-right corner.

Hartman forced Donnarumma to get down to his right to preserve parity 10 minutes into the second half, but City resumed normal service on the hour mark through Nunes.

Josko Gvardiol stood up a high cross to the back post, where Erling Haaland nodded the ball up into the air for Nunes to lash home a volley from point-blank range.

Nunes then turned provider at the end of his well-worked City move, his low cross aimed at Oscar Bobb, but instead diverted in by Esteve as he continued to inadvertently contribute to Burnley’s downfall.

City were in cruise control thereafter, and Haaland gave the scoreline a substantially more emphatic look with two goals in three minutes.

The first came when he turned home from Jeremy Doku’s cross, and Haaland then pounced on a mix-up in the Burnley defence to score his 133rd goal for the club.