Julian Alvarez bagged a brace as Manchester City strolled to a 2-1 victory against Burnley in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening.

At Etihad Stadium, Haaland made his debut as a 71st-minute substitute on December 6, his first since breaking his foot in the team’s defeat at Aston Villa.

Alvarez turned 24 in style, despite the fact that the Norwegian’s main contribution was to make teammates Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva laugh from the bench when he miskicked what was supposed to be a shot on the turn.

Being the 10th player to score two goals or more on their birthday in a Premier League match, the Argentine won man-of-the-match honours.

Both attempts were made during the first phase. In the sixteenth minute, Matheus Nunes sent a beautiful chipped cross into the six-yard box, where Alvarez headed home.

Six minutes later, Kevin de Bruyne shaped to curl a cross into the box, but instead rolled a perfect 20-yard pass that just needed the first-time finish. Alvarez profited from this masterfully executed training ground free-kick routine.

In the first minute of the second half, Rodri scored his third goal in style, finishing off a cut-back from Phil Foden on the edge of the area.

The way his team persevered until the very end would have pleased Burnley manager and former City captain Vincent Kompany.

At least they managed to salvage a goal during injury time, as defender Ameen Al-Dakhil headed in their first goal in seven trips to this venue since 2018.

Nevertheless, they were ultimately unable to prevent City, who are currently in second place, from winning for the eighth time in all competitions and for the 13th time against Burnley, who are in second place.

With a game remaining, City is tied with third-place Arsenal and five points behind leaders Liverpool in the race for an unprecedented fourth straight league championship.