One moment in time: Sergio by centimetres! | OneFootball

Ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Burnley, we go back into the archives and revisit an April trip to Turf Moor from seven years ago.

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Pep Guardiola often talks about how small margins can have such a big impact on a season and that was never truer than in the 2018/19 campaign.

John Stones’ famous goalline clearance in the 2-1 victory over Liverpool and Raheem Sterling’s late goal against Tottenham in the Champions League ruled offside by VAR, are just two prime examples where tiny margins had huge consequences.

And of course a remarkable title race with Jurgen Klopp’s side where any slip-up would have given an advantage to our Merseyside rivals and cost us the title.

It was under the pressure of maintaining that 100% record that we travelled to East Lancashire in April 2019, knowing that only a victory would do.

Our opponents, under Sean Dyche, were a fierce and dangerous team, determined to disrupt and make it as difficult for City as possible.

They had flirted with relegation in early winter but had been in superb form since Christmas with just four defeats in 16 matches.

But City’s form was simply astonishing, arriving at Turf Moor with 11 successive victories and on the back of a 2-0 win away to Manchester United just four days earlier.

Chances, however, were hard to come by with the home side happy to sit deep and soak up pressure with the defensive duo of Ben Mee and James Tarkowksi proving difficult to break down.

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Tension began to rise with the game goalless at half-time after David Silva miscontrolled one good opportunity while Sergio Aguero flashed a strike from the edge of the box just over the bar.

City stepped up even more after the break, Aguero forcing a good stop from Tom Heaton and Burnley striker Ashley Barnes also made a great ‘save’ from Silva but referee Paul Tierney missed his clear handball.

As the clock ticked past the hour mark, the nerves began to grow but the players kept creating chances and the breakthrough finally came.

Bernardo Silva whipped a ball into the feet of Aguero who was initially blocked by Tarkowski but managed to wriggle free to hit a second shot which struck Clarets’ defender Matt Lowton desperately trying to get back.

Moments after the Burnley defender hacked the ball clear, Tierney whistled to signal that the technology had alerted him that the ball had edged over the goal line – a margin later confirmed as just 2.95cm.

Not everyone realised the decision immediately, including Aguero himself, before the players headed over to the City fans to celebrate what was yet another pivotal strike from the Club legend.

Gabriel Jesus had another effort cleared off the right side of the line as we chased a second but crucially we came the home side away from Ederson’s goal to secure a crucial three points.

“I didn’t know [if it was a goal] and if it’s just centimetres, maybe without technology it is not given,” Guardiola said.

“We didn’t concede one shot on target or one corner, we are a small team but we are smart, in the first half the pitch was so dry and it was slow but in the second half we knew we had to score our goal.”

It kept the Blues top of the table with more heart-stopping drama to come against Leicester and Brighton before we landed the title. How we’d take the same for our latest visit to Burnley!