The 2-1 victory over Burnley offered Manchester City fans more questions than answers, as Pep Guardiola's men made it four wins out of five over the holiday period. Can City finally get their act together properly? Is Fernandinho becoming a liability? Is Sergio Aguero capable of goalscoring consistency? Can Claudio Bravo be lent some platform boots? And, apparently most pressing of all, can Pep Guardiola survive in England with its malfunctioning referees and their interpretation of internationally recognised laws of the game, an unrelenting media and the strange quirks that inhabit every nook of the English game?
The 2-1 win was what people used to call "a proper game of football", with drama, passion, bone-shuddering tackles, a referee chasing after his own tail and a fully absorbed crowd. Throw in the red card -- Fernandinho's third of the season and City's seventh -- plus Burnley's brave attempts to get back into the game as the 10 men began to falter and most of the ingredients were there for a classic.
Afterwards, the City manager looked like anything other than a man, who had just witnessed a classic, however.
Tetchy and sensitive to the questions fired at him in the post-match news conference, the Catalan made a point of underlining how poorly he thought Lee Mason had refereed the game, offering -- according to City's manager -- Claudio Bravo little protection for Burnley's goal and sending Fernandinho off for a lunging first-half tackle on Burnley's Johann Berg Gudmundsson.
Guardiola is not the first and will surely not be the last foreigner to arrive in the Premier League and have his eyes opened by the standards of refereeing and by their apparently alternative interpretation of some of the game's laws. On the one hand, English football is famous for being allowed to flow, but at the same time, there appear the gentlest red cards, as was witnessed later the same day with a debatable red card for West Ham's Sofiane Feghouli in their match with Manchester United.
Fernandinho's case was not so open to debate on this occasion. Sliding into a tackle with his studs showing allowed the referee to remove him from the pitch. The Brazilian works tirelessly for the City cause in what is often an understaffed defensive midfield, but he is beginning to get a name for himself for not lasting the 90 minutes. This is partly the result of being the one member of the team asked to fill in a number of roles, leaving him stretched in a fast-moving midfield where his teammates have often deserted him to move further upfield.
His manager, meanwhile, is not making the best fist of settling into the hustle and bustle of English football. Decrying Bravo's assailants during the melee where Burnley scored to get back in the game smacked a little of sour grapes. His goalkeeper is short of inches and will always be in trouble with situations where there are high, hanging balls lofted into the six-yard box and this was proved again on more than one occasion against Burnley.
By the time an actual foul had been committed, the ball had already crossed the line, so City had few causes for complaint. In a rip-roaring game, Burnley had played their full part in destabilising City and the result was still in the balance in the 5th minute of injury time. In the game's aftermath, some sections of the press took umbrage to Guardiola's tetchy mood and he will have woken up today to the full range of hyperbolic headlines featuring his post-match comments.
What you may not read, however, is the careful tinkering that brought about a win against the odds. City, understaffed for 70 minutes, came out on top thanks to a half-time shake-up. For the second consecutive game, this has been the case and, while it brought no reward at Anfield, it did this time against Burnley. Allowing John Stones to roam forward at Anfield gave City new impetus after the break, while the introduction of Sergio Aguero and David Silva on roving briefs against Burnley transformed City's effectiveness.
The Catalan's forte has always been driving intelligently structured football teams, rather than explaining to ranks of journalists how it all comes together. He must learn, however, that it can be crucial to play the press the right way in England. His paymasters are also painfully aware that the process of building a trans-continental brand out of a club that has spent decades helping its supporters towards premature insanity is a delicate task.
City have chewed their way through the great and good -- and many less noteworthy subjects -- of football management through the decades and will no doubt see off a few more in the coming years, but a spirited 2-1 win over Burnley and its aftermath will not be enough to see off the present incumbent.
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