Sunday 4 April 2010

More Burnley reax

James Ducker, The Times

For all Burnley’s failings — and they were too plentiful to list — City were as unrelenting as the torrential rain, but Roberto Mancini’s team can ill afford to be lulled into a false sense of security as they pursue that much-cherished Champions League place.

Having leapfrogged Tottenham Hotspur, fourth position is theirs to lose, but even though four of their remaining six matches are at home, their run-in is strewn with pitfalls.

Joe Lovejoy, The Guardian

It seems a long time ago now that the Red Army were chortling at the alarming concession of goals that cost Mark Hughes his job in December. Hughes's City let in four against United and threes against Burnley, Bolton, Tottenham and Sunderland. If the 3-3 draw at home to Burnley in November was a low point, Saturday's 6-1 drubbing of the same opposition hit a new peak, in that it was City's biggest away win since the Premier League began. At last it seems Croesus, aka Sheikh Mansour, is starting to get some sort of value for that eye-watering investment.

Chris Wheeler, Daily Mail

The ineptitude of Laws’ side contributed to one of the most one-sided contests you are likely to see. Only a torrential downpour that followed a first-half deluge of goals spared Burnley greater humiliation.

It was not serious enough for referee Alan Wiley to abandon the game, but it mired the attacking threat of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Adam Johnson in a way Burnley never could.

Krystyna Rudzki, The Independent

Inspired by Spurs' 3-1 defeat to Sunderland earlier in the day, City's prolific display ensured a much-improved goal difference in the race for the final Champions League spot, with City now on +24 compared to Spurs' +26.

"The targets are very clear," Kompany said. "We have to get fourth place. We all want it, the players want it, the manager wants it. The way we are playing at the moment, there is no reason to think that anything is going to change."

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