Manchester City maintained their perfect Premier League record against Bournemouth, cruising to a 6-1 victory on Saturday afternoon – the club’s record-extending 13th consecutive win against the Cherries.
Jeremy Doku repeatedly pierced Bournemouth’s wilting resolve with an incredible individual display, ending the match with one goal and four assists.
The Cherries were much improved after the interval – though they couldn’t get much worse – and briefly made it 4-1 before crumbling in the closing stages. City’s commanding win took them above Tottenham Hotspur at the Premier League summit ahead of Spurs’ meeting with Chelsea on Monday.
How the game unfolded
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, as respect slipped into fear, discarded the fearsome press that defined his style, setting up his visiting side in a reactive 5-4-1 huddled inside their defensive third. It worked – for 30 minutes.
Scurrying infield, Doku – Pep Guardiola‘s agent of chaos – combined with the team’s metronome, lending the ball to Rodri before tucking it beyond Ionut Radu.
Doku’s willingness to not only run at the red and white stripes but jump off his perch on the left wing befuddled Bournemouth’s backline. Chris Mepham was dragged across the width of the visitors’ crowded box but was beaten by Doku just as easily in a different patch of grass, untangling his knotted legs while City’s star man teed up Bernardo Silva from a cutback.
Less than five minutes had elapsed before Doku forced City into a 3-0 lead, killing a contest that never really looked alive. The Belgian’s wayward shot from the second phase of a corner cannoned off the back of an unwitting Manuel Akanji.
With nothing to lose (or win), Iraola released the handbrake at half-time, shifting his team several yards up the pitch in a return to the proactive playing philosophy that the Basque coach holds so dear.
Erling Haaland had been removed during the interval after hobbling down the tunnel but his replacement, Phil Foden, swiftly quelled any whispers of an unlikely Bournemouth comeback. Exchanging a long-range one-two with Doku, Foden fended off Lloyd Kelly and fizzed City’s fourth of the afternoon under Radu.
To underscore quite how comfortable City were, Guardiola willingly took off his safety blanket of Rodri and John Stones as part of a triple change. Not entirely coincidentally, Bournemouth soon reduced the deficit with a swift move finished off by Luis Sinisterra.
Bernardo restored City’s four-goal advantage with a classic counter in the 83rd minute, scooping Radu after haring on to a through ball played by – you guessed it – Doku once again.
Nathan Ake completed the rout in the 88th minute with a stooping header from a corner, piling the misery on his former club who sit in 17th.
GK: Ederson – 6/10 – Had no chance against Sinisterra’s close-range effort.
RB: Kyle Walker – 6/10 – Pushed right up as a winger to overload Bournemouth’s five-man rearguard.
CB: Manuel Akanji – 6/10 – Sheepishly trotted over to Doku who was celebrating Akanji’s accidental goal.
CB: John Stones – 7/10 – Swept up any whiff of danger as the deepest member of a back-three which City formed in possession.
LB: Nathan Ake – 7/10 – Seemed desperate to get on the scoresheet against his former employers from the first whistle and eventually did.
CM: Rodri – 8/10 – Exactly how many Rodris were on the pitch? Scarcely put a foot wrong in another omnipresent performance.
CM: Mateo Kovacic – 5/10 – Shuttled between the halfway line and Bournemouth’s box with plenty of endeavour but little end product.
RW: Bernardo Silva – 7/10 – Tiptoed between the lines of Bournemouth’s unwinding shape, always just out of reach.
AM: Julian Alvarez – 6/10 – Whipped in a volley of promising crosses that were surprisingly wasted.
LW: Jeremy Doku – 9/10 – Played with concussive speed, unleashing the lightning stored in his feet.
ST: Erling Haaland – 5/10 – After a frustrating opening 45 minutes spent distracting from Doku, Haaland was hooked at half-time.
Substitutes
SUB: Phil Foden (46′ for Haaland) – 7/10 – Showed remarkable strength and skill to control Doku’s return pass – which was behind him – before picking out the back of the net.
SUB: Rico Lewis (71′ for Stones) – 5/10
SUB: Matheus Nunes (71′ for Alvarez) – 5/10
SUB: Kalvin Phillips (71′ for Rodri) – 5/10
SUB: Oscar Bobb (85′ for Bernardo) – 7/10
Subs not used: Stefan Ortega (GK), Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish, Josko Gvardiol
Manager
Pep Guardiola – 7/10 – For an unashamed control freak, giving Doku licence to zip and fizz wherever he saw fit must have taken plenty of faith. The young winger was more than worthy of that responsibility.
GK: Ionut Radu – 4/10 – Tricked by the deceptively slow pace of some of City’s goal-bound efforts.
RWB: Max Aarons – 2/10 – Barely knocked Doku out of stride, repeatedly and ruthlessly bypassed time and again.
CB: Chris Mepham – 2/10 – Iraola did Mepham an almighty favour by taking the beleaguered centre-back out of the firing line at half-time.
CB: Illia Zabarnyi – 5/10 – Bournemouth’s back-five system gave one of the centre-backs licence to step forward and close down a sky blue shirt. Zabarnyi regularly got touch-tight to Haaland and didn’t come off too badly.
CB: Lloyd Kelly – 5/10 – Hauled his considerable frame in front of plenty of shots – but not enough.
LWB: Milos Kerkez – 4/10 – Enjoyed mixed success up against Walker but was regularly outnumbered with Bernardo wandering on to his wing as well.
RM: Ryan Christie – 5/10 – Royally fired up after the break but it was all much too little and too late.
CM: Alex Scott – N/A – Forced off in the first half after an impact injury following a clash with Rodri.
CM: Philip Billing – 3/10 – Skirted on the fringes of a contest that whizzed by him.
LM: Marcus Tavernier – 4/10 – Tried his best to get close to Dominic Solanke but was nowhere near as effective as his centre-forward.
ST: Dominic Solanke – 6/10 – Given a thankless job of holding the ball up on his own but ploughed that lonesome furrow admirably.
Substitutes
SUB: Joe Rothwell (44′ for Scott) – 4/10 – Didn’t offer much in midfield.
SUB: Marcos Senesi (46′ for Mepham) – 4/10 – Fared marginally better than Mepham.
SUB: Antoine Semenyo (71′ for Billing) – 5/10
SUB: Luis Sinisterra (72′ for Tavernier) – 7/10 – Showed excellent composure to take his goal.
SUB: Justin Kluivert (85′ for Solanke) – N/A
Subs not used: Mark Travers (GK), Adam Smith, David Brooks, Dango Ouattara
Manager
Andoni Iraola – 3/10 – Hailed City as a side that “are coached in a perfect way”. The same cannot be said for Bournemouth, with an improved second half evidence of what might have been had they not arrived at the Etihad with their tally already between their legs.
Player of the match – Jeremy Doku (Man City)
