Kevin De Bruyne was grateful to make the Premier League record books after a performance that fell below his high standards.
Having earned acclaim last week with two brilliant assists during Manchester City's draw with Spurs, the 28-year-old was at it again at the Vitality Stadium as his shot across the box was picked up by Sergio Aguero and slotted into the net for the game's opening goal.
That was enough to take De Bruyne onto four already for the campaign - two more than any other player - and 50 in total in the Premier League in the quickest ever time of 123 games - 18 games fewer than previous record-holder Arsenal's Mesut Ozil managed.
Speaking after the game, the playmaker was drole enough to accept that the assist that clinched his half-century may not have been his best but is happy to have made such a mark on the league.
"It’s nice, I was very lucky with it to be honest," he said. "It’s always nice to have something like that in the books. It doesn’t really matter but maybe in 20 years back I can look back and say I accomplished something.
"This one was very lucky but they all count, it makes me happy because I tried to find my team-mates and if they score I get the assist, so it’s like a co-operation, I try to provide them and they score it!"
De Bruyne's assist was important to City picking up an important win in a game where Bournemouth stretched their limits, and the Belgian produced more crosses in the game than the opposition did collectively.
However, a man whose form in pre-season led Pep Guardiola to make comparisons to the 2017/18 season where he drove the Blues to the league title was not satisfied with his performance on the south coast and is looking forward to when there are more games every week.
"Personally I don’t think I played well, to be honest," he added.
"[The assist] doesn’t really matter, a lot of people talk about that but I just don’t think I played the best game. It’s one of those games, August, for me, I’m just trying to find a rhythm and then September is easier. I think the first two games we played better, this was more tough, but I think it’s normal when you play against a team that plays 4-5-1, it makes it more tougher, you need to be more patient but in the end you need to win games in different manners and I think that’s what we did."
