After the lights went out in the changing room, Manchester City finally found a way to shine on the pitch again.
City bounced back from its disappointing draw at Newcastle by beating Burnley 4-1 in the Premier League on Tuesday, displaying the kind of fluent attacking play that has often eluded Pep Guardiola’s team lately.
Gabriel Jesus scored twice for City, which arrived at Turf Moor to find that the lights weren’t working in the away dressing room. The club tweeted out a picture of a black screen to make light of the situation, and the team then made light work of Burnley as well.
Jesus curled in the opener in the 24th minute and doubled the lead just after halftime. Rodri added the third with a thundering volley into the roof of the net from 20 yards out in the 68th before substitute Riyad Mahrez netted his 50th Premier League goal in the 87th. Burnley’s Robbie Brady grabbed a late consolation goal for the host.
City had won just one of their last five games in all competitions but moved into second place above Leicester ahead of its game against Watford on Wednesday. It also cut Liverpool’s lead to eight points ahead of the Reds’ game against rival Everton in the Merseyside Derby on Wednesday.
And Rodri insisted the defending champion hasn’t given up hope of catching Liverpool.
“Until the maths say another thing we have all the chance of winning the Premier League,” Rodri said. “We don’t see the best version of Manchester City until now.”
Ten-man Palace wins
In Tuesday’s other game, substitute Jeffrey Schlupp scored in the 76th minute as 10-man Crystal Palace beat Bournemouth 1-0 to provisionally move up to fifth.
Roy Hodgson’s side played a man down for 71 minutes after Mamadou Sakho was sent off for a rash tackle, but Palace’s makeshift back four produced a solid display to see out a second straight win.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, has now lost four games in a row.
Sakho was making just his second league start of the season and recklessly caught Adam Smith high on the knee when sliding in for a tackle in the 19th minute, causing referee Anthony Taylor to show a straight red card.
Palace then had another setback when Patrick Van Aanholt sustained a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Schlupp. That meant Palace had center-back Martin Kelly playing on the right of the back four, midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate at the heart of defense and Schlupp - usually a winger - filling in at left-back.
Schlupp then scored the winner after he raced past Jefferson Lerma and Dominic Solanke before dribbling into the area and rifling an effort past Aaron Ramsdale from 12 yards out.
Tuesday’s games were the first Premier League matches to be streamed live by Amazon in Britain, after the online giant bought the rights for two full rounds per season for the next three years.
