Burnley 1 - 6 City

All the pre-match feelings that always niggle at me - that City were almost too much the favourites for this game - were blown away in an unbelievable start. A start that was like Barca vs Arsenal in the week, but more dominant and it was from the side I support. There wasn't even time to think 'perhaps we've scored too early'.

Burnley were poor but City were rampant and even impartial observers said that an 8-0 advantage at half-time would not have flattered us. It is one thing to come up against a poor side, but it is another to demolish them - and there was no wastefulness from City today.

Mancini set the side out to attack (he is beginning to look less like the Italian 'defensive' manager every week) and the front four overpowered a hapless Burnley in the opening exchanges. I feel he was vindicated in the selections of Vieira and, to no gamble at all, Bellamy - as both played a huge part in walking through them. After Bellamy's impact in the Wigan game, it was suggested he had been asked to come in-field and help link midfield and attack (something City have been crying out for), and he did this today again - giving an almost free-role which left the Burnley defence unsure of how to deal wit him - the darting run for the second goal typified his success.

The only tangible threat posed to City was the weather and that made for a slightly uncomfortable second half - Nugent threw his arms in the air at every stuttering pass, as if to say 'Ref, this isn't fair, the pitch has interrupted our fluent football, where's our comeback going to come from now?' But, as Adam Johnson said after the match, the pitch really did help Burnley and, with City then unable to play with precision, the match ended as a spectacle - leaving me to watch the sorry Burnley staff plead for a rain delivered mercy.

The day couldn't have gone much better for City - with Tottenham losing, United losing and City recouping a whopping seven goals on Tottenham, even a Luton-esque replay wasn't going to darken the day. City now occupy the fourth poisition and with four out of the remaining six games at Eastlands, City will, at the very least, be 'there or thereabouts'!