Johann Berg Gudmundsson makes the most of Raheem Sterling miss to clinch Burnley hard-fought point

Burnley 1 Manchester City 1: Danilo put the visitors ahead through his sublime goal but Sterling was unable to wrap up victory before Gudmundsson struck an equaliser in the final 10 minutes

Johann Berg Gudmundsson celebrates his equaliser for Burnley (Getty)

Fortunately for Raheem Sterling the title race finished at Old Trafford in December, otherwise the question would be how costly one of the worst misses of the season might have been for Manchester City.

As it was, Sterling’s inability to put the ball away from a couple of yards out would spark only dressing-room banter, a few shy smiles from Sterling and some endless repetition on YouTube. When his captain, Vincent Kompany, was asked about it, he burst out laughing. It would not cost anyone anything.

Manchester City had dominated possession but had only a single, fabulously-struck shot from Danilo to show for their control. Burnley had delivered one warning when a superlative reaction save from Ederson saw Aaron Lennon’s shot pushed on to the intersection of post and crossbar.

The Burnley manager, Sean Dyche, argued that Sterling’s miss contributed to his side’s equaliser in that it gave them the belief that the match could be salvaged. “It was an unbelievable miss and when it happened the stadium erupted,” he said. He added that when Johann Berg Gudmundsson struck the equaliser, his first thought was that Ederson had saved it as he had saved Lennon’s shot. “He so very nearly did.”

Danilo's sublime strike put the visitors ahead (Getty)

Manchester City should long ago have put the game to bed but the game kept slipping from between the sheets. Kevin De Bruyne found Kyle Walker and his pull-back was met by Sterling a few yards out. He was under pressure from Gudmundsson but even the matchday mascot might have fancied himself from here. When the shot went wide, Sterling threw himself theatrically but understandably to the sodden mud.

Things were to become worse for the England international. Pep Guardiola promptly brought him off and then when Gudmundsson clipped Matt Lowton’s long, diagonal ball past Ederson for the equaliser, the cameras panned instantly to him.

On New Year’s Day against Liverpool, Gudmundsson had struck a similarly late equaliser only to see Jurgen Klopp’s side snatch victory deep into stoppage time. Manchester City did not threaten a repetition and, although Burnley have now not won in almost two months, the final whistle was greeted like an epic victory, which in a sense it was.

The Manchester City winger fluffed his lines from two yards out (Getty)

This did not seem a bad time to be playing Manchester City. Snow smeared the tops of the Pennines while a damp slush fell from the sky. Because of illness, injuries and a youth-team match on Friday, Pep Guardiola was unable to fill his bench. February would see Manchester City in a League Cup final and the Champions League; there were excuses for not being at full throttle. However, City were seldom in trouble until, with eight minutes remaining, they were.

One of the intriguing subplots of the afternoon was the substitutions. During the interval, Dyche replaced Phil Bardsley, who had suffered a hamstring injury, at right back with Lowton, whose deep crosses into the Manchester City box were a constant threat. Guardiola’s reaction in replacing Sterling, not with a battle-hardened midfielder like Yaya Toure but with the young Brahim Diaz, was harder to fathom.

Manchester City had plenty of opportunities to have made Gudmundsson’s goal irrelevant. “We created chances in an incredible manner and kept trying and trying,” said Kompany, who missed the first chance when colliding with the Burnley keeper, Nick Pope, as both men tried to meet Bernardo Silva’s deep cross at the far post.

Then, after Danilo had scored, Pope palmed away a fierce shot from Kevin De Bruyne that almost rebounded to Sergio Aguero. In the four minutes of stoppage time Martin Atkinson allowed, the Argentine cut in from the left but Pope held his nerve and Aguero’s shot struck his chest.

Kevin Long brings down Ilkay Gundogan (Getty)

There was nothing whatsoever the ‘keeper could have done to prevent Manchester City going ahead. A ball from Bernardo Silva was met with a fierce right-footed shot from Danilo that crashed into the top left corner of Pope’s net.

It was the kind of shot you would expect of a left-back, although only the kind of left-back who was born in Brazil and who came to Manchester from Real Madrid. In the second half he tried something from a similar distance and this time Pope tipped the shot over.

However, the absence of a second meant Burnley were always in touch and for a while it seemed their likeliest route to an equaliser would come through their captain, Ben Mee. Unmarked, he found a long, looping ball falling to his feet and took a fierce swing at it. Had it fallen to a Brazilian centre-half, a David Luiz say, Burnley might have had their equaliser sooner than they did. Mee, however, was born in Sale rather than Sao Paulo and the shot fizzed wide.