Manchester City 2-1 Burnley: Three things we learnt

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City’s defence is still a cause for great concern

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The attacking names at Guardiola’s disposal roll of the tongue. Aguero – who netted the decisive second goal here – Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, David Silva – Manchester City are never going to overly struggle to score goals. It’s at the opposite end of the pitch where they have had problems, with a defence that doesn’t look strong enough for a team challenging for honours at domestic and European level. Guardiola signed John Stones in a big-money deal from Everton last summer in and, somewhat controversially, replaced Joe Hart with Barcelona’s Claudio Bravo. Neither addition has provided City with more stability and the high-risk passing game that Guardiola insists upon is leading to costly errors at the back. One thing is for certain – Guardiola under no circumstances will abandon the philosophy he has adopted throughout his career. But it looks increasingly obvious that his defenders are not good enough to carry out his instructions, which will ultimately be their undoing.