Gallery: Haaland strike sinks Clarets!

Gallery: Haaland strike sinks Clarets!

Erling Haaland's early goal inspired City to a hard-fought 1-0 Premier League victory over Burnley, taking us to the top of the table and relegating Burnley in the process.

Pep Guardiola’s men knew a win would see us reclaim top spot from Arsenal for the first time in 244 days.

Midfield maestro Rayan Cherki almost had us ahead inside four minutes but saw his close-range strike superbly tipped onto the woodwork by Burnley’s sprawling goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

But, just a minute later, Dubravka could do nothing as Jeremy Doku’s sublime pass set our talisman Haaland through on goal and the Norwegian coolly dinked the ball over the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner, claiming his 24th Premier League goal of the season.

The goal didn’t deter the hosts, who almost equalised, but striker Zian Flemming screwed his effort wide of the post from a promising position 12 yards out.

10 minutes after the break, we almost doubled the lead through the prolific Haaland, but his right-footed strike from 10 yards crashed off the left post.

With 20 minutes to go, substitute Savinho saw a driven strike saved by the foot of Dubravka, before Cherki struck wide from 25 yards and Haaland slammed over from Cherki’s pass.

We pushed hard for a second goal that didn’t come, but claimed three precious points at Turf Moor to top the league for the first time since 21 August and relegate the Clarets back to the Championship.