Manchester City moved within six points of Arsenal after a 3-1 victory over Bournemouth in the penultimate Premier League match of the week. Erling Haaland scored twice in the first half, both goals set up by Rayan Cherki, and Nico O\u2019Reilly extended the lead after the interval.<\/p>\n
Haaland opened the scoring in the 17th minute after Cherki released him from inside his own half. Bournemouth responded from a corner when Tyler Adams converted a loose ball following a failed Donnarumma clearance. City players protested to referee Anthony Taylor but VAR checked and allowed the goal; it was Adams\u2019 first Premier League goal. Haaland restored the lead before half-time with a composed finish after another incisive pass from Cherki. O\u2019Reilly\u2019s strike in the 60th minute sealed the result. Haaland was withdrawn in the 82nd minute for Omar Marmoush; it was the 15th time he was taken off after scoring a brace and marked his fourth straight home match with two goals. Rodri returned as a stoppage-time substitute, his first appearance since the injury suffered against Brentford earlier in the season; he is the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or winner.<\/p>\n
Player ratings (out of 10)
\nGK: Gianluigi Donnarumma \u2014 6.7: Should have done better on the corner for Bournemouth\u2019s only goal of the evening.
\nRB: Matheus Nunes \u2014 7.7: Performed well and dealt with Semenyo and Adrien Truffert for most of the night.
\nCB: R\u00faben Dias \u2014 6.9: The Portuguese was solid at the back and looks to be building some consistent form.
\nCB: Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol \u2014 6.9: Put in some big tackles and won four of his six duels.
\nLB: Nico O\u2019Reilly \u2014 8.3: Probably should\u2019ve had two goals on the night, but will be happy to secure his first goal of the season.
\nDM: Nico Gonz\u00e1lez \u2014 7.7: The Spaniard had another strong showing knowing competition for places will increase given the return of Rodri.
\nDM: Bernardo Silva \u2014 6.8: A more quiet night for the Portuguese. In and out of the game at times.
\nRW: Rayan Cherki \u2014 8.6: The creative spark that set Haaland free for both of his first half goals.
\nAM: Phil Foden \u2014 8.0: Active and accurate in a central creative role on his 200th league appearance for the Cityzens.
\nLW: J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku \u2014 7.4: Completed the most dribbles (5) and created the most chances (4).
\nST: Erling Haaland \u2014 9.1: Scored two clinical goals after blanking last time out in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
Subs used: Tijjani Reijnders 6.1, Savinho 6.5, Omar Marmoush N\/A, Rodri N\/A, Rayan A\u00eft-Nouri N\/A. Unused: James Trafford, John Stones, Nathan Ak\u00e9, Rico Lewis.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth started in a 4-2-3-1. Match stats showed City with 53% possession, xG 1.76 to Bournemouth 0.37, nine shots to two and six corners to one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Haaland’s brace and Cherki’s creativity delivered a 3-1 Man City win and defensive control. Tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,1056,172],"tags":[801,988,1066],"class_list":["post-4228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-antoine-semenyo","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}