More Burnley reax

Ian Ladyman, Daily Mail

City’s problems are obvious. The two central defenders Hughes bought in the summer, Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott, have not developed an understanding, while his full backs, especially Wayne Bridge, are struggling with their positional play.

City also lack a world-class defensive midfield player. If they had bought Javier Mascherano instead of Carlos Tevez then they would be a better team. City were undone against Burnley by familar failings in a terrific game.

Ian Herbert, The Independent

We will remember them. Manchester City did not have Richard Dunne in mind when they asked an officer from the Royal British Legion to read Laurence Binyon's verse before kick-off but that's how it transpired.

Dunne reluctantly left Manchester on 31 August – since when City have managed one clean sheet – and this contributed to a revisionist interpretation of his worth on Saturday. Dunne was the name City fans were murmuring at half-time and the one which, by 5.30pm, Stan Collymore was hollering to his listeners from a press box where those trying to compose some words of sense from this remarkable match longed for someone to flick a switch to turn him and his power supply off.

Mark Ogden, Daily Telegraph

This performance emphasised why Hughes was so determined to sign John Terry. For all his transfer dealings, he has yet to sign a player with Terry’s leadership qualities and drive. City do not possess a player with his fire and determination. There is no Roy Keane, Graeme Souness or Alan Shearer figure.

He might have assembled a dressing room of winners, players with Premier League and Champions League medals, but when the going gets tough, those players have been looking for somebody else to turn the tide in City’s favour.

James Ducker, The Times

A season that, to quote Hughes, started “like a house on fire” has gradually fallen limp, to the point where the manager and his players must feel as though they have been doused down with a rather large hose.

After winning their first four matches, City have managed a solitary victory in the seven league games since and if Liverpool beat Birmingham City at Anfield tonight, they will fall to seventh position, outside the minimum requirement of a top-six finish set by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chairman.

Jeremy Alexander, The Guardian

As a result Burnley, who had no intention of settling for crumbs, swiped the caviar and foie gras while City were waiting to be served. The service was slack from Stephen Ireland, recalled for Nigel de Jong in a formation so wide and attacking that it was nearly 4-2-4. Before Fletcher rolled in Eagles' cross there was a penalty in the wake of Shay Given's save at Birmingham last week. Then Given had stood off-centre, inviting James McFadden to go to the side he would then commit himself to. Graham Alexander took his sequence of success to 28, going the other way.