Five Lessons Learned about Man City as the score line ended Manchester City 6-1 Bournemouth at Etihad Stadium
Jeremy Doku’s Manchester City side moved back to the top of the Premier League table with a comfortable win over Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon.
The Cityzens come into the match at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon with an impressive previous record against their hosts, with City having already won their last 12 Premier League clashes with the Cherries. After the start of the game ended, the first chance went to Erling Haaland who tried to head a cross from Julian Alvarez but only found the post.
Pep Guardiola’s side waited almost half an hour for the opener, but it was worth the wait when it finally arrived. Jeremy Doku backed up from Bournemouth’s backline despite the large number of people around him, playing a brilliant one-two with Rodri before slotting the ball into the net.
City took just a few minutes to double their lead, and their new Belgian striker was on the pitch again, as Doku outwitted his defenders before slotting the ball past Bernardo Silva, who made a superb save. better to ensure that the country travels. The treble winners showed their class with a third goal in just seven and a half minutes, with another Belgian player at the center of the game.
Doku fired a shot against Bournemouth’s shaky and shaky backline and, after turning usefully behind Manuel Akanji, found the back of the net.
IMPORTANT: With 4 goals and 4 assists at the age of 21 years and 61 days, @JeremyDoku became the oldest player in #PL history with 5 goals in team, also the youngest player to score four goals.
The second half is a quiet period, without any goals or clear moments to begin with. That was all before Phil Foden, who brought on Haaland at half-time, added to the blue chaos emerging in the North West.
The England striker played a formidable one-two with Doku’s in-form man before slotting in for his second goal in a week. Bournemouth found a late consolation goal through Luis Sinisterra’s strike which was the visitors’ first goal of the afternoon.
However, City quickly hit back with two goals, as Doku added another assist, helping Silva score his second goal of the day. The attack ended when Nathan Ake headed home against his first club goal after City youngster Oscar Bobb assisted him as a substitute.
Here are five things we learned from Manchester City’s comprehensive win over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Dangerous Doku dazzles
Jeremy Doku really brings something refreshing and new to City’s already star-studded attacking line-up.
His pace and trickery has been missing since the days of Leroy Sane but it has been brought back ten-fold with the Belgian.
Doku opened the scoring with some fantastic play to bury the ball past Bournemouth’s Ionuț Radu before turning provider, setting up Bernardo Silva for City’s second of the afternoon.
He wasn’t done yet though as he lined up another shot just minutes after and once again found the goal, courtesy of a deflection off Manuel Akanji.
The Belgian even assisted Phil Foden once he came on, and provided for Silva again late on to earn himself as many as four assists on the day.
City pick Cherries again
Some teams have favourite opponents where they know that no matter their own form heading into the game, they are likely to get the win no matter what.
For City, a team who have a record like this against most teams nowadays, their favourite team to play are without a doubt Bournemouth.
With 12 straight victories against the Cherries in the Premier League heading into Saturday’s clash, it was only ever going to go one way.
The expected result of course occurred and it seems that Bournemouth may never actually get the better of the Blues.
Kovacic redeems himself
It is hard to think of few worse individual performances from Manchester City players than that of Mateo Kovacic away to Arsenal.
The Croatian lost his head in the loss to City’s title challengers, earning himself a yellow card for what could have easily been a sending off.
This was just minutes before leaping into another silly challenge that again could have seen him dismissed from the Emirates pitch.
Back in the side on Saturday and City’s first signing of the summer looked to be back to his controlling best, ensuring most of his side’s play to pass through him.
Although he did not shine as much as Doku in his contribution, it was nice to see him back in the side and confident once more.
Fort Etihad holds firm
Manchester City have many impressive records to their name but one particular one they currently have is consecutive league wins at home.
Pep Guardiola’s side extended their Premier League winning streak to 22 straight victories at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday with ease.
Bournemouth rarely threatened bar the consolation goal and at times the road to the latest victory felt like a training session for the Citizens.
The treble-winners will take some stopping at home this season as the Cherries found themselves chasing shadows around the pitch like most of teams who visit.
Conceding late on
Despite storming into an ominous lead, Manchester City still could not hold onto that all important clean sheet.
Luis Sinisterra’s second-half goal was a reminder that no matter how much you are cruising, if you go into cruise control, the danger is always there.
City have been victim to several late goals throughout this season such as their previous Premier League home match versus Brighton.
If Guardiola’s men are to repeat the heroics of last season’s Treble win and potentially build on it, mistakes and sloppy goals such as these have to be ironed out.