George Boyd's fine strike earned Burnley a potentially crucial three points against champions Manchester City.
City, who may have had one eye on their upcoming Champions League showdown with Barcelona, looked relatively flat from the off.
This made for a particularly cagey first half, with Burnley adopting a more cautious approach, and City seemingly lacking the drive to really take the game to their opponents.
The second half started in a similar vein, before Burnley clicked up a gear. Under growing pressure, Martin Demichelis fouled Danny Ings. Kieran Trippier swung the resulting free-kick into the box, with Vincent Kompany only able to head out as far as Boyd. The former Peterborough and Hull winger immediately rifled a shot back towards goal, beating Joe Hart and sending the Turf Moor crowd into raptures.
City, under huge pressure to close the gap on league leaders Chelsea, quickly upped the tempo. In the 30 minutes that remained, they managed 11 shots at Tom Heaton's goal, but, in truth, rarely looked like troubling the former Manchester United trainee in the Clarets net. In fact, only 2 of their shots hit the target.
In particular, it was an uncharacteristically poor day in front of goal for the usually deadly Sergio Aguero. The Argentine hitman managed to find the target with just 1 of his 8 attempts.
Opta facts
- George Boyd is the first player to score in 2 league games against Manchester City this season.
- 3 players netted in 2 Premier League games against the Citizens last season; Fraizer Campbell, Philippe Coutinho and Romelu Lukaku.
- Frank Lampard became the second player in Premier League history (after Giggs, 632) to make 600 appearances in the competition.
- Manchester City failed to score in an away league game for the first time since February 2014 at Norwich; they had scored in 20 successive away games before today.
- The 4 managers to stop City scoring on the road in the Premier League under Manuel Pellegrini are Mark Hughes, Gus Poyet, Chris Hughton and Sean Dyche.
- Burnley ended a run of 13 without a win against Manchester City in all competitions (drew 5, lost 8).
- The Clarets had not beaten City in the league since October 1974 (2-1 at home).
- No team has taken more points against the reigning champions this season than Burnley (4, level with Arsenal).
Fan's eye view
Where to start? This was another performance that lacked everything which should be associated with this City team. There was no fight, no energy, no creativity, no recognition that this was a chance to put some pressure on Chelsea. Burnley didn't even have to play that well. They defended OK, pressed eagerly and took their chance, but they were hardly Bayern Munich. Truth is, they didn't need to be.
