Johnny On The Spot: #CITY ARE SAFE. Already 38 points to the good, an intensive run of 9 games across 3 competitions for Manchester City throughout a Decisive December has begun with a hard fought and potentially pivotal win over a spirited if one dimensional Bournemouth…Pep Guardiola rang the changes out of necessity for the visit of Eddie Howe’s combative side and the ring rust rapidly showed in key areas despite our by now customary blistering opening and advantage. In particular at full back, Danilo and Zinchenko were clearly both off the pace and struggling to pick up the Cherries willing runners. City went in at the break at 1-1 in danger of beating themselves with El Boss delivering the death stare as they trudged off the lush green Etihad turf. The turning point came on the 54th minute with the introduction of Lyon warm down legend Fabian Delph at left full who snapped into three consecutive tackles in rapid succession and galvanised The Blues, most notably Raz Sterling back onto the front foot toward an ultimately comfortable victory. I don’t think we should be too concerned by city’s mid-game dip in momentum today. It is essential that as many of City’s wonderful squad get as much mileage as possible into their legs at a hectic stage of what could ultimately be a season spanning 60+ games. Many of our players grew into this game steadily and it was nice to see Ilkay Lampard seal a victory that applies pressure to Klippity’s Boys Band ahead of the Merseyside derby. JB’s Man Of The Match: Leroy Sané.
The Etihad Stadium
FA Premier League
Referee: Stuart Attwell of Warwickshire
| Manchester City | Bournemouth | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bernardo Silva (16'), Sterling (57'), Gündogan (79') | Wilson (44') | ||||||
| 31 Ederson | 27 Asmir Begovic | ||||||
| 3 Danilo | 2 Simon Francis | ||||||
| 30 Nicolas Otamendi | 3 Steve Cook | ||||||
| 14 Aymeric Laporte | 5 Nathan Aké | ||||||
| 35 Oleks Zinchenko | Delph 54' | 26 Tyrone Mings | |||||
| 20 Bernardo Silva | Mahrez 87' | 11 Charlie Daniels | |||||
| 25 Fernandinho | 17 Josh King | Stanislas 85' | |||||
| 8 Ilkay Gündogan | 6 Andrew Surman | ||||||
| 7 Raheem Sterling | 16 Lewis Cook | ||||||
| 33 Gabriel Jesus | 24 Ryan Fraser | Brooks 72' | |||||
| 19 Leroy Sané | 13 Callum Wilson | Mousset 85' | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| 2 Kyle Walker | 1 Artur Boruc | ||||||
| 4 Vincent Kompany | 9 Lys Mousset | ||||||
| 18 Fabian Delph | 18 Jermain Defoe | ||||||
| 21 David Silva | 19 Junior Stanislas | ||||||
| 26 Riyad Mahrez | 20 David Brooks | ||||||
| 47 Philip Foden | 21 Diego Rico | ||||||
| 49 Aro Muric | 25 Jack Simpson | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 16 | Goal attempts | 5 |
| 6 | On Target | 1 |
| 8 | Corners | 4 |
| 9 | Fouls | 3 |
| 0 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 69 | % | 31 |