Manchester City were looking to extend their perfect start in the Premier League to five straight matches. A victory over Bournemouth would also be their eighth in a row to begin the campaign overall, including three Champions League contests -- a feat the Citizens had never pulled off in the 136-year history of their club.
Kevin De Bruyne gets Manchester City on the board in the 15th minute, before Kelechi Iheanacho doubles their advantage 10 minutes later. Raheem Sterling would find the back of the net three minutes into the second half, and Ilkay Gundogan completes the 4-nil rout in the 66th. Not even a late red card for Nolito's headbutt on Adam Smith could dampen this day for the Citizens.
"Numbers are numbers and records will be beaten. What's important is we won a game just three days after a Champions League game, which is always tough. When you play a Champions League game, it's so demanding, the physical condition, but especially in the head. To come back again is not easy. And against Bournemouth it was until now, the best team (we have faced) who created more problems when they had the ball - the other teams played long balls. And they (Bournemouth) want to play and our high pressing the first time, it was not perfect. Some times what you do well, we win a lot of balls and could use it..... could use a lot of counter-attacks. After that, the quality of our play, our strikers, midfield players made the difference. I am very pleased because I know exactly against which team we won. (Joshua) King is a tough, tough striker. Their wingers are so, so fast. The full backs as well, especially (Adam) Smith. But we played serious again. We played like a small team without the ball. That is what I like the most because the people are so proud when famous players run, run run, without the ball. And with the ball of course, the quality of these players made the difference," Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said.
"Our plan wasn't to sit as deep as we did first half, but we ended up getting trapped with nowhere to go. I thought they pressed us very well. I thought they were very good with the ball. Goes without saying. I hoped we could stay in the game. And of course the free kick was a disappointing one because it's gone under our wall. That's something I'll analyse. The second one is the one that really hurts because at 1-0 you're still in the game and then we concede from our set play. A chance for us to score and then five seconds later we've conceded. But fair play to them. They were better than us today," Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said.
