Pressure Back On Liverpool As Mahrez Bails Out Misfiring City

Johnny On The Spot: #PROFLIGATE.  With 810 passes and one vital goal City prevail again despite another glorious bounty of corners and chances going to waste…

Bournemouth started the game with a heavily defensive set up not unlike the one City struggled to break down in midweek at home to West Ham. They could hardly get a touch of the ball in the opening 47 minutes. As soon as the Blues lost the ball, it was won straight back. But the Cherries, just like the Hammers, energetically blocked everything that moved towards their goal whilst City’s profligacy did the rest, much to the immense frustration of Pep Guardiola and City’s travelling army.

Either side of half time, a season strafed with key injuries to the champions was dealt two more blows. First, Kevin De Bruyne, whose deliveries had been increasing in wickedness as his rehabilitation from knee-knack continued, went down and asked to be withdrawn immediately. Then, with the taste of the half time oranges still being savoured, John Stones was also forced to come off. Pep had been forced into two changes. He opted for Riyad “Rodney” Mahrez and Vincent Kompany.

And it was Mahrez who instinctively broke the deadlock, drilling in his 11th Manchester City goal with David Silva providing his 80th Premier League assist to leave “Gnasher” Klopp punching the walls of his solarium on Merseyslide.

The Vitality Stadium boisterously looked to their side for a Plan B out of a sea of negativity, but Eddie Howe’s side stuck rigidly to their damage limitation game plan. The centurions meanwhile found themselves again in stick or twist territory. Push on for more goals or opt for game management? The answer was more of the former.  Total domination of their hosts and some glaring misses despite Kun Agüero’s ever present menace. I would suggest that were this game to have been played out at a less intensive phase of the season; Bournemouth would have been given a good hiding. When everything next clicks for the Blues, somebody is in for a right pasting.

City’s 37th win in a thus far 46 game season leaves us looking at a golden chance to maintain progress on 3 remaining offensives before a welcome international break wherein one hopes the entire squad throw a sicky. A Premier League-Champions League-FA Cup triple header beckons. Watford and Schalke come to town before the Blues go to Championship Swansea. Maintain the forwards momentum in those games and looking at that continually nagging injury list, we will be starting to believe in miracles. All credit to our City. They are clearly giving it everything they’ve got.

This is an EXTRAORDINARY title defence. The rub of the refereeing decisions have been against us, the injuries have piled up amidst media criticism and accusations against the club while we are STILL active in 3 other competitions, having already won another. The most bizarre aspect is that these achievements are passing completely under the radar while the hacks and pundits focus solely upon rooting for Liverpool or Alex Ferguson’s resurgence of United. Stunning.

JB’s Man of The Match: Oleks Zinchenko. Was at the industrious heart of everything City did.

Bournemouth				Manchester City
				Mahrez (55')
1 Artur Boruc				31 Ederson
23 Nathaniel Clyne			Rico 83'	2 Kyle Walker
33 Chris Mepham				5 John Stones			Kompany 48'
25 Jack Simpson			Ibe 83'	30 Nicolas Otamendi
11 Charlie Daniels				35 Oleks Zinchenko
15 Adam Smith				17 Kevin De Bruyne			Mahrez 45+2'
5 Nathan Aké				8 Ilkay Gündogan
6 Andrew Surman				21 David Silva
24 Ryan Fraser				20 Bernardo Silva
20 David Brooks			Mousset 75'	10 Sergio Agüero			Gabriel Jesus 90'
17 Josh King				7 Raheem Sterling
Substitutes
4 Dan Gosling				3 Danilo
9 Lys Mousset				4 Vincent Kompany
10 Jordon Ibe				19 Leroy Sané
21 Diego Rico				26 Riyad Mahrez
27 Asmir Begovic				33 Gabriel Jesus
28 Kyle Taylor				47 Philip Foden
44 Sam Surridge				49 Aro Muric

Game Statistics
0	Goal attempts	23
0	On Target	7
0	Corners	14
7	Fouls	7
1	Yellow Cards	2
0	Red Cards	0
18	%	82