On Friday Pep Guardiola suggested Erling Haaland’s teammates should support the Norwegian in the goalscoring stakes. Cut to 48 hours later and guess who did the business yet again – twice – for Manchester City to take them into a 2-1 half-time lead that proved unassailable?
Step forward the phenomenon who now has 13 Premier League goals this season and a seismic total of 98 in 107 appearances in England’s top flight. After him, this year, Burnley’s Maxime Estève – via two own goals – is City’s highest league contributor; Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders, Matheus Nunes, Rayan Cherki and Nico O’Reilly (in this game) have all scored once.
Both Haaland’s goals punished Andoni Iraola’s high-line strategy as he burst behind Bournemouth, while O’Reilly scored the third after the break. On 82 minutes Guardiola removed the Norwegian – to the ovation he deserved – and City’s sixth victory of the season put them on 19 points, six behind Arsenal in second, at least until Sunderland host Everton on Monday.
Haaland said: “I think there were a few fantasy football managers that were unhappy that I was subbed off.”
Foden, like Cherki, was a leading support act to Haaland, often popping up in pockets as he did when on the half-turn for Jérémy Doku to find. Space opened, Foden flitted in and saw his shot smack off Marcos Senesi for a corner. Two followed, each taken by Foden and each using a near-post Haaland flick to try to cause chaos in the Cherries’ area.
They survived. As had City when, moments into the contest, Eli Junior Kroupi found the net but was offside. Iraola’s team replicated the move via Antoine Semenyo, who swept them deep into City turf before a pass left to David Brooks.
A better killer instinct and the captain could have homed in on Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal: instead he allowed Nunes to outmuscle him and City cleared.
Haaland, the expert in ruthlessness, showed Brooks how. Midway inside City’s half he headed from Foden to Nico González, turned, and galloped forward. The holding midfielder chipped to Cherki who, lurking near the halfway line, nodded the ball sweetly into Haaland. What occurred next offered zero surprise. The No 9 raced in, Adrien Truffert could not catch him, and Haaland had a 25th goal in all competitions, beating Djordje Petrovic to his right – off a leg - before celebrating with a robot-like mime.
Afterwards, on X, his explanation seemed to be that here was a response to those who brand him robotic in play. “Guess I couldn’t hide it any longer,” Haaland said.
This was 17 minutes in. Haaland’s 26th goal arrived just after the half-hour – after the visitors’ equaliser – and, again, came from another lightning City break. Foden fed Cherki, whose left boot this time released Haaland who, from an inside-right zone, cut across before, once more, giving Petrovic scant chance, this time rounding the goalkeeper.
Before this, Donnarumma’s poor handling of Alex Scott’s corner allowed the ball to dribble to Tyler Adams and equalise from close range. City’s keeper – and teammates – complained that Brooks impeded him. He did hook a hand around Donnarumma but let it go in time for the Italian to try to punch away, so the goal seemed fair.
The referee, Anthony Taylor, provoked more home ire when, before Haaland’s second, he rejected a penalty shout after Bernardo Silva’s cross struck Álex Jiménez’s hand: it first hit the right-back’s knee so the referee ruled this correctly, too.
City could have gone 3-1 up when O’Reilly’s raid had him turning back across goal but Silva, agonisingly, could not turn the ball home.
Iraola’s homework informed him of City’s susceptibility to the counter and so as the hour neared, his players went to turn those in sky blue this way. Scott tapped to Kroupi and only Donnarumma’s flying leap stopped a second equaliser.
O’Reilly’s third was a diagram of why City, in this 10th game of the campaign, are a different beast to last season. Cherki’s pass to Foden was as slick as the toe-poke to O’Reilly that was an assist for the Stockport Iniesta on a 200th Premier League appearance. The big left-back ran in on goal, then left Petrovic flailing with a low shot.
City cruised and searched for another as is the Guardiola modus operandi. Yet Semenyo kept them honest with a skip past Cherki down the left before a cross that Marcus Tavernier was inches from connecting with. This meeting came a year to the day since Bournemouth’s first (and only, so far) league win over City initiated a run of four straight defeats and their midterm slump. Today was a different tale – as is, so far, the story of each team’s season.
