Burnley

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Simon Stone, BBC Sport

Vincent Kompany will never tire of coming to the Etihad Stadium.

It is a ground where he enjoyed so many momentous moments. A statue stands in his honour outside.

But this time, he will be glad to get out. Beaten, yes. But that was expected.

The key thing is Burnley didn't suffer horrible damage to their goal difference, which would have been the case if they had suffered the five or six goal mauling that looked likely when City led 2-0 midway through the first half.

Burnley played to a structure, were organised and didn't capitulate. These are all traits that will serve them well.

Clearly, they remain in massive trouble and could do with a P&S favour of two at some point.

But nothing that happened at the Etihad Stadium made the situation worse. And that is something to be grateful for at least.

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Burnley manager Vincent Kompany to BBC Match of the Day: "Our team just keeps going and that will never go. But we're playing against a top team. We have to look at the easy goals we conceded but also the chances we created. The priority now is to build that momentum towards Fulham.

"We played one of the best teams in the world. In these games it's about being able to build chances and momentum. I felt if we had the last pass coming off, if we put it in the back of the net it would help of course.

"We had our moments. I can dissect it as much as I want but we have to move on to Fulham now.

"I thought we looked after the ball ever so well. Every time we had the ball we looked threatening. When we defended, we have to defend better.

"It's Burnley Football Club. It's 101 points in the Championship last year. It's six years survival in the Premier League with definitely the lowest budget for all those years. We'll find a way, we keep grafting and going. There's enough drive in the club to keep pushing ourselves. We're definitely not going to give anything up."

Julian Alvarez scored two first-half goals as Manchester City enjoyed a comfortable Premier League victory over struggling Burnley.

On his 24th birthday, Alvarez headed home from Matheus Nunes' dinked cross for his first and pounced on a Kevin de Bruyne through-ball for his second.

Rodri scored City's third goal a minute into the second half, latching on to Phil Foden's cut-back and slotting into the bottom corner.

Ameen Al Dakhil got a late consolation for Burnley in added time.

Pep Guardiola's side moved up to second in the table but remain five points behind league leaders Liverpool, while Burnley are in 19th place.

Were you at the match or did you follow it from elsewhere?

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Follow all of the reaction here

There are three games being played in the Premier League on Wednesday and we will bring you every moment.

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All kick-off times are GMT

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Former Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin, writing for the BBC Football Extra newsletter:

This feels like it has been the quietest Premier League transfer window ever. There is still a day to go and, in the past, huge deals have been done right up to the deadline, but it will not suddenly become a free-for-all this time. The question is: why?

Are all the clubs and their managers deeply satisfied with their well-balanced and over-performing squads? I hardly think so. Have all the coaches suddenly decided that they really want to work more with the youngsters coming through, rather than get a ready-made striker in the morning? Probably not.

Have the big clubs suddenly got sensible and concluded that it is silly spending hundreds of millions of pounds on players, destroying any possible company profits and yet still having no certainty of success at the end of it? This thought might have crossed a few minds.

There is always the possibility that some clubs got the fright of their lives after Everton’s 10-point deduction. Have they finally realised that some of the very complicated and fancy financial and accountancy sleights of hand might not bamboozle the Premier League after all?

Some clubs have spent huge sums and are now quietly trying to sell players to make the books balance.

Does it not smack of just the vaguest possibility of a chance that there might have just been a bit of blustering, self-indulgent financial mismanagement by the owners of some of the top clubs? Surely not - these Masters of the Universe always know what they are doing and understand finance so much better than the rest of us.

I remember listening to a hugely successful banker once braying on to me about how they knew best. I think he was from an organisation called Lehman Brothers.

As deadline day looms, we want to know what your ideal final day of transfer business would look like for Burnley.

Do the Clarets need to make any signings? If so, who should they look to bring in? And does anyone need to be offloaded?

Let us know your views here

Image source, PA Media

Shamoon Hafez, BBC Sport

Burnley spent close to £100m in the summer but have so far only added David Datro Fofana on loan from Chelsea in January.

Now French centre-back Maxime Esteve looks like being next through the door at Turf Moor with reports of a medical scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

When asked about the 21-year-old on Tuesday, manager Vincent Kompany said: "All I can say is that he's not our player at the moment. I think we're past the point where I can deny there has been interest, right? But the point is he's not our player."

Meanwhile, BBC Sport understands the Clarets have rejected a loan move from Lille for winger Anass Zaroury.

The Moroccan was one of the star performers in Burnley's promotion last season but is understood to be frustrated at the lack of game time this season.

One player who looks like staying at the club is Manuel Benson - the Belgian was linked with a move to the Championship this month, with Southampton and Hull both interested, but a deal did not materialise.

Follow the latest transfer news here

Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League matches again this season, against a variety of guests.

For this week's midweek games, he takes on Chelsea fan Matthew Vaughn, director of new spy film Argylle.

Sutton's prediction: 3-0

Former Manchester City defender Vincent Kompany will get a great reception when he brings his Burnley side back to Etihad Stadium, but I don't fancy his chances of getting anything else.

It's a big night at the top of the table, with Liverpool playing Chelsea later on Wednesday, and I am not expecting City to drop any points. I like the way Burnley play football - but they can be a little naive as well.

It won't be a pummelling but City should win comfortably, and the hardest thing for their title rivals to consider is that Kevin de Bruyne is getting fitter and Erling Haaland will be back in action.

City have got such strength in depth and we have reached the stage of the season where they usually put their foot down. It would be a major shock if they slipped up at home to the Clarets.

Vaughn's prediction: City have got something to prove and we could see a big scoreline - I think they are just going to go for it. 4-0

See the full list of predictions

• Manchester City have won 16 of their past 17 meetings with Burnley (D1), winning the past 12 in a row by an aggregate score of 43-1.

• Since the start of 2017-18, no side has won more Premier League away games against the reigning champions than the Clarets (two), with victories at Chelsea (August 2017) and Liverpool (January 2021) in that time.

• City have spent the longest time winning (850 minutes) and the least amount of time losing (188 minutes) in the Premier League this season. They’ve trailed for just three minutes at home this term, with Tottenham the only side to lead against them at Etihad Stadium so far.

• Burnley have dropped 18 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season – only in 2016-17 (19) have they lost more in a campaign in the competition.

• Erling Haaland has scored five goals in just two appearances for Manchester City against Burnley, netting a hat-trick in the FA Cup last season and twice in the opening league game this term. He averages a goal every 29 minutes against the Clarets so far.

Natalie Bromley, No Nay Never podcast, external

This January transfer window is troubling me.

Why? It is hardly news that a side struggling in the relegation zone would want to bolster the squad and bring in cover where it is needed, and Burnley are no exception to that. So I should be excited, no?

The thing that is troubling me is whether it is worth it.

We spent more £100m in the summer (depending on which reports you read and whether you believe them), with 15 new faces coming into Turf Moor. But from the beginning of the season the squad just did not look strong enough or... ready.

The areas needed to strengthen were clear to most Burnley fans - centre-half, central midfield and at centre-forward. All with Premier League experience. We can now move a left-back to the top of that list, following the long-term injury to Charlie Taylor. There are plenty of rumours doing the rounds about targets, prospects and loan deals, but they all seem to be "highly rated" European youngsters full of promise.

We have enough of those players in our squad, sufficient for the three-year plan we have put into place to "go for it" at the time we should have been promoted.

Instead, we need strength, physicality and experience if we have any hope of surviving. We need the next Ben Mee.

And so there is my worry - is it worth it? Are we already doomed this season so would just be throwing good money after bad? Should we save our money and invest in the summer for the Championship? Or is it worth one final throw of the dice?

Don't get me wrong - I love the optimism our chairman is projecting - he is convinced we can and will stay up - but it looks ominous to me.

Nat Hayward, BBC Sport

Burnley manager Vincent Kompany has been speaking to the media before Wednesday's trip to face Manchester City in the Premier League.

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Kompany said "there will be some positive news" on possible returns for injured players Charlie Taylor, Jordan Beyer, Sander Berge, Aaron Ramsey and Hannes Delcroix.

• However, the Belgian confirmed Nathan Redmond will miss the rest of the season after a "freak accident" in training.

• On the 19-day break between their last game and the visit to Etihad Stadium: "Massive gap, I've never experienced it before. I wanted to treat it as a positive. The players had the chance to reset a little bit and, I hope, recharge what they need to. Hopefully they'll benefit from this period."

• On Wednesday's opponents: "They're a great side. They've got top players, a top manager. The combination of that makes them very difficult to play against. There's not many times you get the opportunity to play against what is currently the best team in the world."

• On the mentality needed to face City: "You can't start the game defeated, even though the rest of the world will - rightly so - have an idea of the outcome. We're going there with every desire to get the most out of this game. Whatever they bring, we have to make a game out of it."

• Kompany said it will "always be a special game" facing the side he captained to so many trophies, but added: "I'm focused on my job. My job takes too much of my days to treat it with every desire to get a result for Burnley."

• On possible activity before the end of the transfer window: "There's moving pieces. The recruitment team is putting in a shift to try to see if we can make the team stronger. There's still a few calls coming in for some of our players as well. We'll see."

Follow all of Tuesday's Premier League news conferences, plus transfers latest

Listen to BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra match commentary of Man City v Burnley at 19:30 GMT on Wednesday

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Burnley chairman Alan Pace says the club's new talent share deal with Dundee will help the Clarets "move forward" on and off the pitch.

"It's been in the pipeline for a little while," Pace told BBC Radio Lancashire. "We've been looking for opportunities as a club to expand our network of relationships with other clubs, to share knowledge and develop players more robustly.

"We came to the conclusion that it was a great opportunity to help the club move forward."

He explained that Dundee made sense as the club to choose for a variety of reasons.

"A big factor was location as it's not that far by train if our players and staff are [travelling] back and forth," he said.

"Also, we love Scotland. We love the football that's being played up there and think there's more to come from that.

"We're always on the look out for things that will help the club, but it has to be real, organic, thoughtful and authentic. It's not something we just do for commercial reasons or to be like everyone else."

Watch the full interview here, external

We've seen fewer deals at this stage of a January window than normal.

Simply put, clubs are having to work with what they’ve got. The financial regularities mean nobody wants to get any points deducted, so everybody must be sailing very close, unless there’s a bit of trading to do.

Generally you see one go and then things move around, but it’s heavily looking like just loan deals.

If you ask the bulk of managers if they would bring reinforcements in then they would. I don’t think there’s many who would say they wouldn’t take at least another player. It’s in everyone’s nature to do so. They may say they are not bothered out loud, but do you really believe it?

What can be done? Teams have players missing across the board and it’s a high number of injuries for this time of the season. But it all comes down to the Financial Fair Play regulations.

Would Nottingham Forest go and try and do a bit? Probably. We know Gary O’Neil at Wolves would love to do stuff, but he’s governed by what he can move around in order to bring in.

Then you have the bottom three. They have to strengthen wherever possible but their hands are also tied. It’s tough what they can get over the line.

Michael Brown was speaking to BBC Sport's Katie Stafford

Coventry City attacking midfielder Callum O'Hare, 25, is out of contract in the summer and being monitored by Southampton, Burnley and Leicester City. (Mail), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Thursday's full gossip column

Burnley are trying to strike a deal to sign 21-year-old Montpellier defender Maxime Esteve. (Fabrizio Romano), external

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Burnley and Republic of Ireland forward Michael Obafemi is expected to join Millwall on loan for the rest of the season. (Sky Sports), external

Want more transfer news? Read Tuesday's full gossip column