Manchester City could possibly be with out Kevin De Bruyne for a variety of weeks after he suffered the recurrence of a hamstring harm because the defending champions opened the Premier League season with a 3-0 win at Burnley on Friday. Erling Haaland scored twice earlier than Rodri accomplished the scoring to provide City an ideal begin to their quest to grow to be the primary aspect to win 4 consecutive English top-flight titles.

But the evening was soured for Pep Guardiola’s males by the sight of De Bruyne limping off halfway by the first-half.

The Belgian had suffered a hamstring tear in City’s Champions League last victory over Inter Milan two months in the past.

“He was injured again unfortunately,” mentioned Guardiola. “Same place and position as the Champions League and he will be out for a while.

“It is determined by the magnitude however shall be a couple of weeks out. He has to free (his) thoughts and chill out as a result of he got here again from that place (earlier accidents) and he shall be again now.”

Burnley’s 2022/23 season finished over a month before City’s European Cup final win in Istanbul. Guardiola has bemoaned his side’s short pre-season compared to their rivals, but they were quick out of the blocks.

“We are nonetheless not in our greatest (bodily) kind however we have now to attempt to not drop many factors in that interval,” added Guardiola. “It’s a query of mentality and we have been lucky to interrupt the sport early.

“A lot of teams are going to suffer here, so that is why I am so pleased.”

Haaland fired City to the treble final season by scoring 52 instances in his first 12 months on the membership. The 23-year-old took simply over three minutes of the brand new marketing campaign to open his tally as soon as extra when he swept house Rodri’s header throughout objective after a well-worked nook between De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden.

Burnley boss Vincent Kompany has a statue exterior City’s Etihad Stadium in honour of his embellished enjoying profession with the English champions.

Kompany returned the Clarets again to the Premier League on the first time of asking and reworked Burnley’s enjoying model within the course of throughout his first season in cost. Despite the scoreline, the house aspect have been removed from outclassed however paid for the dearth of a scientific finisher like Haaland.

Luca Koleosho and Zeki Amdouni missed good possibilities to equalise, whereas Amdouni additionally had a penalty attraction turned down. “There were a lot of periods of the game where we did ourselves proud,” mentioned Kompany.

However, they have been hit with a sucker punch when Julian Alvarez laid off Kyle Walker‘s cross into the trail of Haaland to provide an unstoppable effort in off the underside of the bar 9 minutes earlier than half-time.

With the wind taken from Burnley’s sails, City took a stranglehold of the sport after the break with out ever having to hit prime gear. Rodri was the unlikely hero with the one objective in Istanbul two months in the past and he began the brand new season as he completed the final by smashing house from shut vary after a goalmouth scramble.

Burnley’s depressing evening was rounded off in stoppage time when Anass Zaroury was proven a straight crimson card for a wild problem on Walker.