Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth: Pep Guardiola’s side up to second after passing tricky test
Manchester City have been accused of being over-reliant on Erling Haaland. That may well be true but Pep Guardiola’s side are also allowed to relish having a formidable superstriker to power their attack and make the opposition tremble.
The Norwegian beggars description. A goal machine, a force of nature, the first of a new robot model designed to change football forever. At 6ft 5in and with incredible pace, Haaland happens to the opposition. Watch him bear down on hapless defenders and goalkeepers, watch him power past them as they fidget with anxiety.
Haaland has now scored 17 goals in 13 appearances for City. Goal number 16 came early enough in the first half against the Cherries. With barely a quarter of an hour played, Nico Gonzalez combined with Rayan Cherki in midfield. The latter punished Bournemouth’s incredibly high line by putting Haaland through on goal with a headed pass.
With nothing but grass, goal and goalkeeper before him, Haaland ventured forward to apply the finish to the bottom left corner. Very few in the stadium could have doubted it. These days Erling Haaland scoring is almost an inevitability, a thing to be managed rather than avoided.
Bournemouth didn’t manage it quite well because 15 minutes later it happened again. Cherki again was the man of vision whose ball over the top put Haaland through and the Norwegian ran toward goal. Djordje Petrovic rushed forward to try to contain him, but the striker toe-poked the ball to go around the goalie, and then showed enough pace to meet and then slide it into an empty net for goal number 17.
After City’s first, Bournemouth had shown their powers of recovery. In a strange first half, Andoni Iraola’s side dominated the ball while City were the ones to sit back and play on the counter attack. They clicked through the gears and soon found an equaliser, with Tyler Adam on hand in the six-yard box to slam the ball in after Gianluigi Donnarumma had failed to properly clear Alex Scott’s corner kick.
The Italian protested that he was fouled but replays showed there was hardly enough contact to justify a claim that he had been unfairly impeded. Further vociferous protestations earned him a yellow card.
But the Cherries had no answer to Haaland’s second. The Norwegian could have scored a third when Jeremy Doku put him through and he tried to lob Petrovic, but that time the goalkeeper was equal to it.
City missed a number of chances and in the second period Guardiola’s side managed the game much more effectively. Eli Junior Kroupi came close but Donnarumma pulled out a stunning save from his locker.
The excellent Matheus Nunes managed to contain Bournemouth’s usually irresistible dangerman Antoine Semenyo on the away side’s left wing. City’s other full-back, Nico O’Reilly, after failing to score in the first half when he rounded Petrovic, netted their third on the hour mark when he struck from the edge of the box.
