Haaland steers Manchester City to top of the table and condemns Burnley to drop

This informed City not to relax so they moved upfield and an O’Reilly header from a corner forced a low save from Dubravka. Before this Rayan Cherki also could have doubled the lead but a rising effort was palmed on to the left angle of the goal by Dubravka.

Guardiola will have rued this lack of ruthlessness, especially as Fleming raced in once more. This time Abdukodir Khusanov’s lightning speed allowed him to move across and challenge the Dutchman, who blazed over.

This was disappointing but the Clarets could feel pleased to be only 1-0 down and when Cherki’s long-distance dribble down the right ended in him failing to find Haaland you wondered if Scott Parker’s men might yet have a say in the title’s destiny.

The sense deepened when, near the interval, Haaland screamed when Doku’s cross from the left did not come to him, and a Khusanov miscontrol close to Donnarumma’s goal nearly let Burnley in.

Then, James Ward-Prowse swung in a free-kick which O’Reilly missed: the youngster, playing in the injured Rodri’s berth, recovered to stop Bashir Humphreys and Hjalmar Ekdal equalising but as the teams wandered off Guardiola surely prepared a terse word for his players.

This would remind them of what was at stake and how Sunday’s hard-fought 2-1 win over Arsenal could not be allowed to go to waste by not ending the night with the desired result of a victory that would take them above the Gunners.

With Rayan Aït-Nouri the sole change from Sunday, were City tired? Guardiola sent the same XI out for the second half so, maybe, the Catalan did not think so. A surer diagnosis was of a casualness and slowness to the play which needed remedying. Here, Rodri’s ability to set and control the tempo was missed. So, too, was Dubravka’s goal – badly – by Antoine Semenyo when put clear by Cherki.

The winger holding his head in despair was emblematic of City’s flatlining. They needed to jumpstart themselves and Haaland went close via a right-footed pea-roller that pinged off Dubravka’s right post.

The resistance of Burnley could be admired, too. They squeezed up to City to compress time, and Parker’s backline stymied them from breaking in behind, as illuminated by a speculative Doku 20-yard shot he ballooned over. Guardiola, seeing enough, removed Aït-Nouri, for Nico González, and Semenyo for Savinho. Instantly Savinho forced a save from Dubravka, as City closed by queuing up to breach the keeper’s net but Haaland scoring and O’Reilly missing clear chances was the story of this tight win and vital three points.