ARE THE FA SERIOUS ABOUT SIMULATION?

Sean Dyche was fairly measured in his comments about Manchester City’s penalty and Bernardo Silva’s fall after the game on Saturday.

The Clarets boss is an expert at managing to park the emotion before he gives his view, and he stopped well short of going in too strongly, accepting there had been contact.

But let’s be honest, that contact was minimal, and instigated by Bernardo. Referees can not reward that with a penalty.

It’s now a big test for the FA’s new simulation laws. Only one player, Carlisle United’s Shaun Miller, has been banned so far. If Bernardo also gets away with it then it makes a mockery of those attempts to eradicate diving from the game. Are they serious about that or not? We’re about to find out.

SCORING RUN ENDS

The plaudits tended to go the way of the defence when Burnley are doing well, but the blank at the Etihad actually ended an impressive run in front of goal.

This was the first time in 10 away trips to last season’s top seven that the Clarets had failed to trouble the scorers, dating back to the 0-0 draw at Old Trafford a year ago this week.

Since then Burnley have scored at Tottenham, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton.

The Clarets success might be built on solid foundations at the back, but they do have their own weapons and more often than not they can hurt the opposition.

WOOD’S THREAT MISSED

The loss of Chris Wood after just 20 minutes against City certainly didn’t help Burnley’s chances of troubling the scorers.

The New Zealand striker had already marked his threat, battling against Kyle Walker and Nicolas Otamendi to come away with the ball before Ederson averted the danger. That would prove to be his last action.

Wood can lead the line expertly. He’s no slouch when he gets going and the runs he makes to try and give the Clarets an out ball are clever.

After he departed Ashley Barnes battled away, but he couldn’t offer the same threat in behind and Burnley’s attacking edge was blunted.

STAYING RESOLUTE

It would have been easy for heads to drop after that penalty had been awarded and scored half an hour in. We’ve seen City score goals in bunches this season - as they did late on on Saturday - but Burnley refused to cave in.

At 1-0 down they were still in the game and they fought hard to keep it that way, even if the threat to City’s goal was minimal. In the end they couldn’t keep it that way, but 3-0 was no disgrace. City might have been rampant this season, but nobody really hands Sean Dyche’s Burnley a thrashing.

CITY SLICKERS

Burnley have played all of last season’s top four away from home now and if the Premier League winners this season are coming from that group then surely the Clarets have just played them.

Manchester United could jump from fifth to challenge City, but Pep Guardiola’s side look the real deal this term.

They found it tough going against Burnley at times, but then who doesn’t? Some of the moves they did string together were mightily impressive, notably in the build-up to the penalty and the swift change of play that led to their third goal.