Burnley boss Dyche - key decisions went in Manchester City's favour

City skipper Vincent Kompany could have seen red for a high, late challenge on Aaron Lennon in the first minute, while Leroy Sane was lucky to stay on at 3-0, for a wild kick on Matt Lowton.

In between, City added a second in bizarre circumstances as Sane went to ground inside the area, and, with referee Jon Moss poised to blow his whistle, he instead waved play on.

Jack Cork let the ball run towards the byeline, and David Silva came back from off the pitch to pull the ball back, seemingly from behind the line, with Bernardo Silva finding the roof of the net.

Fernandinho added a third immediately after, and the game was done and dusted.

Dyche wasn’t saying the result would have altered, but said: “In the modern game that’s a red card (Kompany). I don’t like red cards if they can be not given, but that one is a red card, he’s out of control, doesn’t know where the man or ball is, it’s just a throw of the leg.

“It’s high, Azza has got a cut that he’s managed to get on with, two stitches in it.

“It’s high on his thigh, there’s no control in the moment, not vicious, but no control, and we’re told control is a big thing in that type of challenge, so it’s a red card.”

And on the second goal, he added: “There’s so many things, Sane goes down with the tinies of touches, a pull of the shirt...I don’t know how hard you need to pull a shirt for someone to spin around and fall on the floor.

“I’m always amazed by what’s going on in the game at the moment.

“Then our players respond to that, feeling he’s gone to ground far too easily, let’s say, and the referee is going to blow his whistle, then decides not to, and waves it away.

“In the meantime, a player who’s off the pitch now walks back on the pitch to get the ball which is off the pitch, to deliver a cross they then score from.

“If that’s not confusing for everyone in the stadium, it’s certainly confusing for me.

“I thought it then, I’ve seen it back, with as best view as we can get, the ball is out of play, forgetting about everything else.

“The biggest learning curve, and I said to the players afterwards, you have to stay focused, and afterwards remonstrate. We normally do, to be fair, play through the moment.

“But we were locked in that moment and didn’t let it go. A couple of their players switch off as well, but they are human at the end of the day.

“Then they scored from a really soft corner, and the game has gone then.

“We’re not getting back here at 3-0.

“The rest is history.

“At 1-0, we’re in it a little bit, not massively - they are a top side, nothing I’m saying remotely says we’d have won the game if all this went for us, but it’s not helpful when you’re playing here against these.”

And on Sane’s kick out, Dyche felt that was the easiest decision of the lot: “Then we get on to Sane, which has got to be a red card, for kicking Matt Lowton for no reason at all.

“Just smashes him round the legs - it’s got to be a red card, simple as that.

“That one’s a definite, I don’t think there’s any debate, you can’t just run around a football pitch, and when the ball is nowhere near you just smash someone round the back of the legs, that’s unacceptable, surely.

“But it’s just crazy where the game’s going, no one cares about diving, they dived all over the place again today, and no one cares.”

Burnley ended up on the wrong end of a 5-0 beating, but while City had other chances, it felt like the scoreline had a flattering look: “You come here, you’ve got to play well and need them to have a soft one.

“You need your keeper to make some saves probably, they’re probably going to create some chances so you need them to have a quiet day when they don’t take all those chances, and first half the game plan was working on that level.

“I thought we stuck at it, as the half finished we were growing, which you sometimes have to do as you start on the back foot, then you have to grow into the game, which I thought we were.

“The game starts again and it’s right and cagey, they’ve come at us again, as they often do here, but then the key moments changes the whole game and the feel of it.

“They changed the clarity of our performance because our players got too involved, so that’s the learning curve.

“But, strangely, it you take all that away, was it a 5-0 game? Not really.

“But the key moments ended up making it that.

“But they can beat you any way