City hit five past Burnley after controversial banner is flown over stadium
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Manchester City thrashed depleted Burnley 5-0 yesterday evening at the Etihad Stadium courtesy of a brace each by Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez and a goal by David Silva. This win allowed City to strengthen their grip on second place, reducing the gap behind Liverpool to a still-massive 20 points. With eight games to go, this means that Liverpool will not be able to clinch the title should they beat Crystal Palace at home tomorrow.
Despite this emphatic victory, it was a banner which was towed by an aeroplane over the Stadium which stole the show, for the wrong reasons. The banner read “White lives matter Burnley”, and appeared just a few moments after both sets of players took a knee to support the Black Lives Matter movement.
Burnley defender Mee expressed his disappointment. “We’re ashamed, we’re embarrassed. “It’s a minority of our supporters – I know I speak for a massive part of our support who distance ourselves from anything like that. “It definitely had a massive impact on us to see that in the sky. We are embarrassed that our name was in it, that they tried to attach it to our club – it doesn’t belong anywhere near our club.”
Burnley have also distanced themselves from the banner, saying that it “in no way represents” what the club stands for and that they will “work fully with the authorities to identify those responsible and take appropriate action”.
“Burnley strongly condemns the actions of those responsible for the aircraft and offensive banner,” the statement added.
