Haaland hobbles off as Man City crush the Cherries
Manchester City 6, Bournemouth 1
Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League after one of the more predictable results of the season.
This was City's 13th win out of 13 Premier League fixtures between the clubs and the aggregate score in those fixtures now stands at 44-6. No wonder the bookies priced the hapless Cherries at 25-1 to secure a win at the Etihad!
Jeremy Doku was City's main man, scoring the first and then having a hand in four of the others, including Bernardo Silva's double plus goals from Manuel Akanji and Phil Foden before Nathan Ake completed the rout against his former club.
The Cherries were actually two minutes away from keeping City out longer than any other team at the Etihad Stadium this season but, in the blink of an eye, Pep Guardiola's side were home and hosed.
Three goals in seven minutes meant the only interest left was how many City could be bothered to score.
After a one-sided opening half an hour, Doku finally opened the scoring when he played a neat one-two with Rodri on the edge of the penalty area before curling a shot into the far corner.
The Belgium winger set up the second three minutes later when he cut the ball back and Silva didn't even have to break stride as he stroked the ball home.
Doku really deserved City's third goal but his shot from Silva's pass was awarded to Akanji after taking a deflection on its way into the corner of the net.
The only surprise was that Erling Haaland didn't find the net but it didn't come as much relief to Bournemouth that the Norwegian didn't re-appear for the second half after picking up a knock.
To their credit, the Cherries didn't throw in the towel - they were just over-powered and out-played. Philip Billing had the ball in the
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