Key events
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Bournemouth (Adams 24)
A goal out of nothing! From a corner, Donnarumma completely misjudges the flight of the ball, slices his punch and Adams pounces on the loose ball inside the six-yard box, turning the ball into the empty net! A terrible goalkeeping error!
21 min: Maybe it’s the goal in midweek, maybe it’s just that he has acclimatised to his new City teammates, but Cherki has a real swagger about his play today. And that was a fine assist, a first-time header into Haaland’s path.
19 min: That’s what you get for playing a high line against Haaland. Some would call it suicidal defending but if you want to press City high up the pitch, then the whole team has to squeeze. That leaves gaps in behind that Haaland has spent his career exploiting. That is the Norwegian’s 25th goal for club and country this season. And it’s the 2 November.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Bournemouth (Haaland 17)
Bournemouth pay a price for that high line! Senesi is drawn out of position to press Cherki, but the Frenchman nods a through ball over the head of the Bournemouth defence. Haaland is onto it like a flash, sprinting into open ground with just Petrovic to beat … and rolls the ball past the keeper into the net at the near post! The Bournemouth stopper got a touch on the finish, but couldn’t stop it!
16 min: “I’ve had a fairly successful weekend of results predictions so far (exception: Shrewsbury survived their trip to south shields), so let’s try this one,” emails Jeremy Boyce. “Haaland is obviously a big handful but City look distracted at the moment, and then there’s Rodri. Meanwhile, Bournemouth never cease to surprise and more than that, please. Looks tailor made for a 1 – 2 Louvre-esque smash’n’grab by the south coast side, despite Haaland adding to his already impressive tally.”
14 min: Senesi has had a fine season so far but the Bournemouth centre-back is not the quickest and City have tested with a few hopeful through balls towards Haaland. So far, the City man has yet to latch onto anything meaningful, but the threat is there.
12 min: The game is following the trend that was expected. City dominating possession, probing with their tricky schemers Doku/Cherki/Foden. Bournemouth are more defensive but still aggressive in their press, looking to pounce on any errors and surge up the field on the counter-attack.
10 min: It’s quite a special quality that Semenyo has, as shown in last move, that he can run with the ball faster than most players can run without it. So when he carries the ball at full pace, he has complete confidence that nobody is catching him. Rather than looking over his shoulder, he can look up, be positive, play fearlessly.
8 min: From a dangerous City corner in which Haaland wins a near-post flick on, Bournemouth counter-attack with pace and verve. Semenyo carries the ball a full 40 yards, and releases Brooks down the left. But Matheus Nunes uses his athleticism to track back and barge the Bournemouth man off the ball, just as Brooks was readying a shot.
6 min: Doku finds Foden in a neat pocket of space just in front of Bournemouth’s defence and the Englishman drives with intent into the box, forcing Senesi to make a brilliant covering challenge. That shot was goalbound. Great defending.
2 min: Following his disallowed goal, Kroupi is shoulder barged to the ground by Dias, a friendly welcome to the game. It’s a small sample size, admittedly, but Kroupi has a 50% conversion rate from his six Premier League appearances to date. That is quite some figure.
BOURNEMOUTH GOAL DISALLOWED!
1 min: Just 46 seconds on the clock, and Kroupi has the ball in the net for Bournemouth! Adams nicks the ball in midfield, Brooks burns past Gvardiol on the right wing and the Welshman squares the ball to Kroupi, who has an easy tap in at the back post! But the teenage striker is (correctly) ruled offside, and the goal chalked off! Kroupi just needed to hold his run and get level or behind the ball when Brooks crossed.
Peeeeeeeep!
We are underway in Manchester!
The teams are out! Blue Moon is being belted out by the home fans. Both teams are huddled, with Rúben Dias barking instructions (and encouragement?) to his City teammates.
Here’s an interesting pair of stats, courtesy of Opta. Going into this weekend, City are the only side in the Premier League this season to spend more than half of their game time in a winning position (51.3%), while Bournemouth are the side that has spent the least amount of minutes (11%) losing.
Rayan Cherki’s only league start for City since his £30.5m summer move from Lyon was the 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham in August. It’s been a fairly underwhelming start for Cherki, who has flickered with some bright moments. Guardiola highly rates the Frenchman, who scored in the Carabao Cup against Swansea this week, and had this to say about the playmaker only last month.
The two managers have spoken to the Sky Sports cameras.
Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola:
We have never got a point here so we knows it’s going to be tough. Injury wise, we come with every one available so we arrive in a good moment. I hope we have a chance. Definitely we need our best performance. I trust our players. Let’s see if it’s enough.
Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola:
Yesterday was only the first training session, so we decide to leave him on the bench. Rodri is also not ready to start, he needs to play.
Accounting that for West Ham-Newcastle result, here is the updated Premier League table. Just three points separate Bournemouth in second and Aston Villa in 11th.
Bournemouth have done just fine without him, but Evanilson is back in the squad today for the first time in a month. In his stead, striker Eli Kroupi has caught fire and is looking to become just the fourth teenager to score in four consecutive games in the Premier League.
A first win for Nuno at West Ham, who have beaten Newcastle 3-1 (but remain in the relegation zone).
Meanwhile, north of the border, Celtic have taken an extra-time lead against old rivals Rangers in the Scottish League Cup.
In an unexpected turn of events, West Ham are beating Newcastle. You can follow the final 15 minutes of that one right here, with John Brewin.
Those are two insanely attacking sides! By my reckoning, both sides have just one player each in their midfields – City have Nico González and Bournemouth have Tyler Adams – that are defensively minded.
Plus, City have two converted midfielders playing at full-back, although you could argue that both O’Reilly and Matheus Nunes are just full-backs at this point.
Team news!
Manchester City: Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Silva, Gonzalez, Cherki, Foden, Doku, Haaland.
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Rodri, Ait Nouri, Savio, Lewis.
Bournemouth: Petrovic, Jimenez, Diakite, Senesi, Truffert, Scott, Adams, Tavernier, Brooks, Semenyo, Junior Kroupi.
Subs: Dennis, Cook, Evanilson, Christie, Doak, Smith, Kluivert, Adli, Milosavljevic.
Preamble
Bournemouth don’t have a great record at Manchester City – since their first promotion to the Premier League in 2015, the Cherries have lost all eight of their league visits to the Etihad Stadium, scoring five goals and conceding … 31 – but this isn’t an ordinary Bournemouth team.
The south-coasters currently sit second in the Premier League. That is despite the fact that they lost some of their biggest stars (including three-quarters of their defence) over the summer, a transfer window in which the club made a profit of £63.3m. Relatively unheralded teenagers Eli Kroupi (plucked from Ligue 2) and Veljko Milosavljevic (who made only 27 first-team appearances for Red Star Belgrade before signing for Bournemouth) have come in as thrifty replacements and already look like Premier League superstars.
Antoine Semenyo has arguably been the best player in the league this season. Andoni Iraola is a likeable and unflappable manager, playing an entertaining brand of football that is flexible enough to steer clear of tactical evangelism. Unbeaten since August, Bournemouth might have the smallest stadium in the league but have turned the Vitality (11,300 capacity) into a mini fortress. Away from home, the Cherries have been a bit more inconsistent – a win over Tottenham has been supplemented by high-scoring draws against Leeds and Palace – and this is the improvement that Bournemouth must make if they are to truly be considered as genuine top-four or (DON’T SAY IT, DON’T SAY IT, DON’T SAY IT) even title contenders.
Manchester City, of course, know what it takes to go the distance, even if this current crop are struggling to live up the treble-winners of yesteryear. Arsenal look imperious at the moment but only a fool would count out Pep Guardiola and co with just a quarter of the season completed. City will go second on 19 points with a win today, six points behind the Gunners. That is not an insurmountable gap, particularly as Arsenal’s next three league games are Sunderland (a), Tottenham (h) and Chelsea (a).
Plenty to play for, then, in an intriguing match.
Kick-off: 4.30pm GMT.
Source From: Premier League | The Guardian
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