At the Vitality Stadium, Manchester City easily defeated Bournemouth thanks to a sharp offensive performance, pulling back to within two points of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League standings.
After the Gunners’ victory earlier on Saturday, the champions were under pressure, but it did not show as Pep Guardiola’s team cruised to a 4-1 victory on the south coast with a performance full of style and vigour.
After City had taken a commanding lead earlier in the half thanks to goals from Julian Alvarez and Erling Haaland, Bournemouth contributed to their own demise by handing Phil Foden a goal just before halftime.
Alvarez ⚽️+🅰️
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 25, 2023
Haaland ⚽️+🅰️
Foden ⚽️+🅰️
🍒 1-4 🐝 #ManCity pic.twitter.com/5epU0eDKIE
Chris Mepham’s own-goal added insult to injury for the Cherries who – for all their efforts – were outrun and outclassed.
Jerfferson Lerma’s late strike gave home supporters some momentary cheer, but this had been the champions’ day.
City opened the scoring after 15 minutes, the move beginning with a fine challenge by Rico Lewis, who started on the right of City’s midfield for his 11th appearance in the league, to win the ball out near the touchline.
From there, Ilkay Gundogan played it up to Foden, who was thwarted as he shaped to shoot but instead worked the ball to Haaland. After the striker’s effort smacked the underside of the crossbar, there was Alvarez, first onto the rebound to fire home from a yard out.
The second goal was not long in coming. As Bournemouth pushed forward, Nathan Ake won back possession and released Gundogan escaping down the left.
His ball into the middle again found Foden, who was knocked off it by Jordan Zemura. The defender’s intervention was in vain though, Haaland stealing in to tap home the loose ball to double City’s lead.
The visitors were cruising and had wrapped the game up before the break. The third goal was a calamity all of Bournemouth’s own doing.
Dominik Solanke failed to properly look up and played a lazy, aimless pass, square across the pitch from the touchline. That was pounced upon by Foden, alert to the opportunity, leaving him with the simple task of advancing on Neto’s goal and rolling the ball beyond the goalkeeper.
The Cherries were falling apart and their hopes of keeping the score respectable received a blow five minutes into the second half.
Lewis put in a good cross from the right which was cleared, but only as far as Foden, whose whipped ball in was blasted against Mepham by Alvarez for an own goal.
The hosts, for their troubles, fought gamely to pull a goal back, a goalmouth scramble midway through the second half leading to a VAR check for handball which ultimately did not yield a penalty.