‘We’re going to make it uncomfortable for City’ - Burnley’s Mee hoping to thwart his former side

Ben Mee has said Burnley will not make life easy for Manchester City when the champions travel to Turf Moor on Sunday.

After Liverpool’s 5-0 win against Huddersfield Town on Friday, City know they need to pick up three points to return to the top of the table.

However, Burnley proved to be a tough nut to crack for Pep Guardiola’s men last season and, despite amassing a record-breaking 100 points, they failed to overcome the Clarets on their travels in 2017/18.

On that occasion, Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s late strike earned Burnley a hard-fought point, and Mee believes they could achieve something similar this season.

“We try to make it difficult for whoever comes here and it will be difficult for the two big teams coming to our place [City and Arsenal]. We’re looking forward to it,” the centre-back told the Mirror.

“Especially against the top teams, you have to give something different. You can’t go out, play nice football and let them play nice football against you. You can’t expect us to roll over and say: ‘here you go, have the three points'.

“We’re going to work hard, make it uncomfortable for them as possible and we’ll certainly do that against City.

“It’ll be good to compete against these teams coming up. Man City, the best team in the league, they’re going for it with Liverpool at the minute and these are the games where you compete and see where you’re at as a professional,” Mee added.

Burnley demonstrated just how strong and determined they can be on Monday night, when the Lancashire outfit came from two goals behind to take a point off top-four chasing Chelsea.

“We battered Chelsea in the second half,” said Mee. “But we reacted really well and it’s been one of the best halves of the season I’ve been involved in.”

Sunday’s game will against City will have added meaning for the Burnley defender, who came through the club’s youth system before permanently joining the Clarets in 2012 after a brief loan spell.

“I’ve got a lot of friends still at City,” said the 29-year-old. “Sadly Bernard Halford passed away recently and he was a really good bloke, top man at the club and there’s still some there. There will be plenty of family there.”