Man City 6 Bournemouth 1
Man City welcomed The Cherries to the Etihad Stadium fresh off the back of their first win of the season last weekend. Erling Haaland has scored more goals than the visitors since his arrival in Manchester, some stat.
Andoni Iraola opted to play a back five for this game, which gave some indication of how they planned to approach this game. Much like the British soldiers at Rorkes Drift it would seem. ‘Don’t kick that ****** ball at me!’ Radu will no doubt say.
Bernardo Silva was in the mood for some creative genius and began to tease the Bournemouth back line from the outset and as the ball was lifted into the back post, Haaland’s header struck the outside of the goal frame.
It took half an hour for Man City to find a way through, as Doku played a neat one-two with Rodri, before bending the ball into the far corner. Iraola will have felt up until that point his side had kept to his game plan.
Credit: @ManCity
Doku continued to cause problems and as he laid the ball off to Silva, he hit his effort first time with it nestling into the bottom corner. Guardiola’s side were in rampant form now and putting the visitors under severe pressure.
The Belgian winger tried his luck once again from the edge of the box and as it flew into the far corner, he turned away to celebrate. However, the replay showed his effort was going well wide and struck the back of Akanji before beating Radu to make it three-nil.
Bournemouth added Alex Scott to their ranks in the summer but he has been hampered by injury. As Iraola’s side came forward, he seemed to jar his knee as the City player challenged for the 50/50 and limped off having seemingly damaged his knee once again.
The Cherries made a positive start to the second half and Christie got to the byline to find Solanki at the near post who toe-poked the ball home. Sadly for the visitors, the assistant’s flag went straight up and Christie was just offside as he made his run.
Billing and Solanke combined once again but the striker was aggrieved to see his effort come thundering back off the crossbar. It seemed like it was just going to be one of those days for Bournemouth.
Doku then found Foden, who had come on for the injured Haaland, and neatly slotted the ball home to extend the lead of Pep Guardiola’s side. It was all going according to plan for the defending champions.
Credit: @ManCity
The visitors continued to try and put pressure on Man City and substitute Sinisterra was to put the ball in the back of the net with his first touch since coming on. A long VAR review then took place as they got their rulers and gridlines out but the goal was to stand.
Jeremy Doku was showing in this game why Guardiola wanted to add him to the ranks in the transfer window as he played a sublime ball from his own half to set Bernardo Silva away, bearing down on the Bournemouth goal.
He still had a lot to do but the ball seems to stick to the foot of the Portuguese playmaker and he chipped the ball over the keeper from a tight angle but as the defender hooked it clear, the effort had already crossed the line.
Man City were not done and Nathan Ake was to score a diving header in the closing moments of the game to rub salt into the wounds of Andoni Iraola’s side. That is now twenty-two consecutive wins at home for Pep Guardiola’s side, some record that.
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