Manchester City 5-0 Burnley: Mahrez nets hat-trick and Mendy and Torres add further strikes

There has been an insistence around Manchester City that it really was a matter of time. Pep Guardiola would have preferred they arrived with regularity before now but here they were. Some goals, at last.

Burnley are always obliging at the Etihad Stadium and this was no different. For unexplainable reasons, Sean Dyche always watches his team wilt while stood on this touchline. Groundhog day for him as City gallivanted freely – notably Riyad Mahrez, who recorded a first Premier League hat-trick in five years.

A primary reason why they are six points adrift of Liverpool, the final pass, has lacked for much of this season. It showed signs of returning in Greece during midweek and clicked properly yesterday, City fizzing in the Manchester drizzle. Kevin De Bruyne’s radar was back in spectacular fashion, the energy was up and so too a composure in the final third. Clinical, too, with five goals from just six shots on target.

Riyad Mahrez scored his first Manchester City hat-trick as they once again beat Burnley 5-0 at the Etihad Stadium

The Algerian opened the scoring pretty early on when a counter attack saw him fed by Kevin De Bruyne to sweep home 

Mahrez then doubled his and City’s tally after receiving a Kyle Walker throw in, cutting inside and finishing in off the post

Pep Guardiola saw his side bounce back from the defeat at Spurs with a fourth straight 5-0 win against Burnley at the Etihad

‘When you play well and you don’t score in games you have a bit of frustration,’ Mahrez admitted. ‘But we have to keep working. We did keep working get the confidence back.’ Mahrez’s own uplift in performance has come over the past few days, according to his manager. ‘We’ve seen him sharper,’ Guardiola said. ‘Before he was not.’

City were good, although Burnley undoubtedly left the architects of their own surrender. James Tarkowski and Charlie Taylor – two of their most consistent performers usually – will look back on the first couple of Mahrez’s strikes with regret. And from there, the game was gone. Beaten before they started. ‘We didn’t turn up,’ Dyche said.

Tarkowski first gifted away possession inside his own half, a loose pass to Dwight McNeil that Rodri pounced upon. Bailey Peacock-Farrell was picking it out of his net five seconds later, City countering rapidly and De Bruyne spotting Mahrez to sweep in.

Little wonder, then, that City have plundered 27 home goals against Burnley in the last six meetings. City joined the Notts County team of 1907 in becoming only the second in Football League history to beat the same opponent by five or more goals in four consecutive home games.

Dyche’s screams of ‘get out, get out’ to his marooned back line fell on deaf ears. ‘You are looking for a performance,’ he said. ‘It got away from us against a top side. The gameplan is almost dismantled by our own doing.’

Guardiola had control of midfield, what he demands more than anything else of his side, and it was a tough assignment for 20-year-old Josh Benson on Premier League debut. Benson completed some nice touches, threatening with a smart second-half free-kick, but even the most experienced campaigners would have left here dizzy.

In for the injured Nick Pope, Peacock-Farrell’s top-flight debut worsened midway through the first half. Taylor failed to respond fast enough to Kyle Walker’s throw-in, Mahrez then bearing down on Ben Mee and Tarkowski. Neither could stop the silky Algerian feet and the satisfying clink of the post rather encapsulated City’s afternoon.

A first Saturday afternoon three o’clock slot since January, no less, and they emphatically finished proceedings four minutes before the break. This time Burnley could do little, really, with De Bruyne sauntering between the lines, planting a perfectly arced cross right onto Benjamin Mendy’s instep. The left back volleyed into the far corner, his first goal for the club.

Benjamin Mendy then made it three before the break by cushioning a volley with the inside of his foot into the bottom corner

The goal was Mendy’s first for the club and came after he was picked out at the back post by the superb De Bruyne

Ferran Torres’ goal glut since joining City continued as he added a fourth with his first in this season’s Premier League

The Spaniard swept home after a flowing attack that saw Gabriel Jesus find him from Kyle Walker’s cross on the overlap

‘The goals are not important,’ Guardiola said. ‘We can win with bigger margins which is good but I’m not expecting to win by lots all the time. We had a lot of chances in every game. We were good today and converted.’

There might have been more before then, VAR disallowing a Ferran Torres for offside – a decision that prompted bafflement – while Peacock-Farrell hurriedly kept out an over-hit De Bruyne cross.

Burnley did seem briefly more progressive, Dwight McNeil taking aim from distance before Benson almost squeezed his effort through City’s wall. Soon though the hosts were well and truly out of sight: two goals in three minutes either side of Phil Foden’s introduction. Gabriel Jesus strongly held off markers inside the box, pushing possession on to Torres for the Spaniard to pass in a fourth before he was withdrawn.

The replacement, Foden, immediately sent a rasping cross over for Mahrez to head his third. Foden’s cross was exquisite, a first-time whip to the back post. That this was a fifth consecutive league game that has started with him on the bench is quite staggering, truth be told.

VAR disallowed another City goal for offside, sparing Peacock-Farrell’s blushes further after he had somehow kneed over his own line. A comical own goal was all that was missing. That or a De Bruyne goal, the mercurial midfielder hammering a post in stoppage time.

Mahrez then completed his hat-trick with a thumping header at the back post after meeting Phil Foden’s delicious cross

City could have had a sixth after debutant Bailey Peacock-Farrell put through his own net but it was ruled out for offside

Ederson was largely untroubled but did have to make one smart save to deny Burnley forward Jay Rodriguez’s drive

De Bruyne was once again outstanding for City and himself went close by rifling an effort off the inside of the post

It was bad news for Burnley boss Sean Dyche after his men suffered yet another hammering at the Etihad Stadium

City meanwhile climbed the table and are now just six points behind Liverpool after they drew at Brighton earlier