'No malice in Lennon challenge', says Kompany

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has insisted that "there was no malice" intended in his challenge on Aaron Lennon, in his sides 5-0 thrashing of Burnley at the Etihad on Saturday. 

Burnley boss Sean Dyche later slammed the challenge as "reckless", and angrily suggested that the Belgian was lucky not to have seen a red card for the challenge, instead of the yellow card that he was immediately shown by referee Jonathan Moss. 

The challenge in question occurred when Kompany had miss controlled the ball and lost possession deep inside the City half; the defender then lunged desperately at winger Lennon, but instead of retrieving the ball, he caught Lennon high on the leg.

Burnley were awarded a free kick, and offender Kompany received a caution. 

Kompany has since spoken to the media in defence of his actions, saying: "It certainly wasn't on purpose. It's happening a bit blindside. I think I got my studs on his leg but it's going for the ball. I think I got it and luckily he wasn't injured. That's the main thing."

City took advantage of the favourable decision, and after seeing out the visitor's set piece, proceeded to win the game by a 5-0 scoreline, and maintain their first place position in the Premier League.

The defender also took the opportunity to praise the togetherness of the side's performance, in particular the link up play from back to front; work that may have been overlooked in the midst of an excellent attacking display once again from the champions forward line.

Komapny explained: "We work hard, try to improve everything. You might look at the five goals and say, 'How good is the attack'? That's a mistake, it's the team who build it up from the back."

He concluded: "And if you look at the fact we didn't concede and say, 'How good is the defence?' that's a mistake too. The strikers press from the front and make sure we recover the ball fast so we don't concede too many chances."