City hammer Burnley in EPL

LONDON (AP):

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 their disappointing draw at Newcastle by beating Burnley 4-1 in the Premier League yesterday, displaying the kind of fluent attacking play that has often eluded Pep Guardiola’s team lately.

Gabriel Jesus scored twice for City, who 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 half-time. 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 hosts.

City had won just one of their last five games in all competitions but moved into second place above Leicester ahead of their game against Watford today. They also cut Liverpool’s lead to eight points ahead of the Reds’ game against rivals Everton in the Merseyside Derby today.

And Rodri insisted that the defending champios haven’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.”

In yesterday’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, have now lost four games in a row.