Key stats
- Erling Haaland is the third player in Premier League history to score multiple goals in four successive Premier League home appearances after Luis Suárez (five in 2013) and Robbie Fowler (four in 1995/1996).
- Manchester City's Phil Foden made his 200th Premier League appearance, the second player born in 2000 or later to reach that milestone after Bukayo Saka.
- Antoine Semenyo, Marcus Tavernier and Marcos Senesi all made their 100th appearances across all competitions for Bournemouth today.
Highlights
Analysis
Across all competitions in 2025, Rayan Cherki has produced five performances with two or more assists in the same game, the most of any player for a side in Europe's top five leagues.
Despite a strong start from Bournemouth, Manchester City gradually asserted their dominance in the fixture and were rarely troubled in the second half.
Match report
Following their disappointing loss away to Aston Villa last week, Pep Guardiola would have demanded a response here against Bournemouth.
The Cherries thought they had stunned the hosts with 45 seconds on the clock after Eli Junior Kroupi fired in when unmarked in the box, but their joy was short-lived after he was found to be offside.
City took heed of that warning, and soon clicked into gear to deadly effect, as Erling Haaland ran onto Rayan Cherki’s flick on and raced through on goal before firing past Djordje Petrovic.
Andoni Iraola’s side were not here to lie down, however, and levelled the scoreline less than 10 minutes later, after Tyler Adams capitalised on Gianluigi Donnarumma flapping at Alex Scott’s corner kick, which allowed the American international to lash the loose ball home.
After drawing level, Bournemouth were punished by the PL’s leading scorer once again as they criminally allowed him to race through, round Petrovic and slide the ball in for his 13th league goal this season.
Bournemouth came out firing again once the second half got underway, and came close to levelling once again, but Donnarumma did well to deny Kroupi, following neat link-up play between David Brooks and Scott.
City once again stepped up a gear though, and following a neat spell of possession, Phil Foden poked the ball to Nico O’Reilly, who took a touch and composed himself before drifting into the box and firing into the far corner, surely putting the game beyond Bournemouth’s reach.
The third goal knocked the stuffing out of the Cherries, who struggled to get any breaks in the face of a resolute City backline.
Following a host of changes from both benches, the contest became a stop-start affair, but Pep’s men controlled the final moments with little trouble, easing to a win that lifted them up into second – a point above the Cherries, who dropped down into fourth.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Post-match comments
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland to Sky Sports:
"Important win. It is good to bounce back after losing a bad away game. It was nice.
"I tried to contribute for the team by doing my job. It is good to win. Now, two more important games are coming, so keep focusing.
"I didn't score last game. I try to help the team to win. That is my goal, and even by scoring or helping in winning duels, it doesn't matter. I want to help the team become better. That is my job."
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola to Sky Sports:
"We experienced it last season in the Premier League when they destroyed us. Here it was tight, it's always been tight with them. They're always intense, so aggressive.
"Today is only the second game they've lost, we've lost more games than them.
"The goal that we concede, when you see the replay, it's unbelievable that it's not a foul. There are times when it's difficult to understand why this is not disallowed. But we were stable enough to have the momentum to score the second."