AGUERO SAVES FERNANDINHO’S BLUSHES
ANGRY Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Manchester City could be his last managerial job. Guardiola, whose ten-man team climbed up to third after an edgy win at home to Burnley, was pressed about an interview he gave at the weekend in which he said: ‘I will be at Manchester for the next three seasons, maybe more, but I am arriving at the end of my coaching career.’ Asked why he might retire, he snapped: ‘Because I decide so. It might be one of my last teams.’ Guardiola was also far from happy with referee Lee Mason. Midfielder Fernandinho faces a fourmatch ban after he was sent off for the third time in six weeks, but Guardiola was furious about the challenge on his goalkeeper Claudio Bravo in the build-up to Burnley’s goal. ‘I didn’t see it,’ he said of Fernandinho’s tackle. ‘But I saw the foul on Bravo, that was definite.’ Maybe it’s time the City boss did start coaching tackles. Admittedly, some of City’s red cards that preceded Fernandinho’s sending-off yesterday for a two-footed lunge have not been for fouls. We’ve had Sergio Aguero’s elbow, Nolito’s headbutt and Bravo’s handball. Fernandinho had been sent off on two other occasions in his previous six games, first against Borussia Monchengladbach and then for grabbing Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas by the throat. Aguero was sent off in the same game for an awful challenge on David Luiz, and if Fernandinho’s attempt to tackle Johann Berg Gudmundsson yesterday lacked the same malice, Mason only followed the letter of the law by showing red. City broke the deadlock in the 58th minute, the goal coming from an unlikely source in Gael Clichy, scoring his first league goal in more than two years. Bacary Sagna’s cross found Clichy on the far side. The Frenchman then fired a low shot towards the opposite corner and Tom Heaton couldn’t prevent it from creeping inside the post. There was an element of farce about the second goal four minutes later. Kevin De Bruyne played the ball through for Raheem Sterling and Ben Mee fell over, Sterling also went tumbling but the ball fell to Aguero who curled the ball in off the near post. Sean Dyche’s side hit back with a rather chaotic goal of their own in the 70th minute that did nothing to improve Guardiola’s mood. The City boss felt Sam Vokes impeded Bravo at a corner, but the referee let it go. Vokes’s effort was blocked but the Goal Decision System indicated that Mee’s follow-up effort had crossed the line after hitting the underside of the bar.