Match Report and Player Ratings: Bournemouth 2-1 Manchester City (Premier League) | OneFootball

Manchester City suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season with an abject display against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.

Just days on from crashing out of the Carabao Cup in the fourth round at Tottenham, it was another laboured and careless display from the Blues, and it saw them trail at half-time to Antoine Semenyo’s early goal.

Things didn’t improve in the second period and Evanilson added a second for the rampant Cherries, and despite Josko Gvardiol’s late goal, Pep Guardiola’s men were consigned to a first league defeat of the season.Signs immediately pointed to a long afternoon for City when they needed their goalkeeper to produce a double save within the first two minutes; Semenyo saw a shot from the edge of the area parried away, before the Brazilian recovered to smartly deny Justin Kluivert.

There was nothing he could do to prevent the Cherries opening the scoring five minutes later though, as Phil Foden couldn’t stop the advance of Milos Kerkez up the flank, with the full-back picking out the eager Semenyo to turn Josko Gvardiol and slot home.

City stemmed the tide a little for a while and created their first big chance on the half-hour mark, as Matheus Nunes’ dart into the box made space for Bernardo Silva to strike, but Milos Kerkez produced a massive block to keep the hosts in front.

Nunes seemed Manchester City’s best outlet on the left and he found Erling Haaland with a deep cross about 10 minutes before the break, but the striker dragged his shot wide having shifted it onto his left foot.

Manchester City’s start to the second half was just as sluggish as in the opening period, with Ederson again called upon to deny Bournemouth in a one-on-one with Evanilson. Nunes remained the Blues’ biggest threat, and he ought to have had an assist when he skipped past Adam Smith and found Foden, but the Englishman steered his strike wide.

Just beyond the hour, it was 2-0 Bournemouth, and it couldn’t have been easier; Kyle Walker couldn’t live with Semenyo all afternoon, and the winger played it in behind City’s captain for Kerkez, who had all the time in the world to pick out Evanilson for a simple finish.

City were hopeless and Bournemouth were relentless – Marcus Tavernier bent a curling effort onto the base of the post and Adam Smith somehow contrived to put the ball over the bar in the face of an open goal.

Manchester City’s first shot on target? The 80th minute of the game, a stretching Haaland volley which was gobbled up by Mark Travers. Admittedly, that effort was immediately followed up with a second shot on target, and this one found Bournemouth’s net.

Ilkay Gundogan had a difficult afternoon but picked out a quality cross to Josko Gvardiol, and the Croatian finished like a striker as he so often does with a terrific header.

Despite a late scramble, City couldn’t save themselves as they so often have this season, meaning it was a deserved first defeat to Bournemouth in the Premier League, and a deserved defeat at that.

The result leaves Manchester City second in the table, trailing Liverpool by two points, and after a disappointing afternoon, here is how we rated the players in Manchester City’s woeful defeat to Bournemouth!

Player Ratings

Starting XI

Ederson – 7.5 (MOTM)

Let down by those in front of him. Pulled off some impressive saves to keep the score down, and how worrying is it for Manchester City that that’s the case?

Kyle Walker – 2.5

Perhaps we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he’s not yet fully fit and wasn’t ready to start this game? That would be a better defence than anything Kyle Walker produced on the pitch today.

Manuel Akanji – 5.5

Jittery on the ball to begin with, settled a bit as it went on but had no hope of defending the goals with the lack of cover.

Nathan Ake – 5

Lost Evanilson completely on the second goal. Passed crisply enough but, like Manuel Akanji, Manchester City’s shape meant he was always fighting a losing battle.

Josko Gvardiol – 7

Managed to progress the ball down the left at least, although was still second best in a couple of duels. Wonderful headed goal.

Mateo Kovacic – 4.5

Little of his usual ball-retaining skills on show, as he couldn’t deal with Bournemouth’s suffocation of the middle of the park.

Ilkay Gundogan – 4

With all due respect to the legendary former captain, he takes the biggest share of the blame for Manchester City’s failure to control the midfield. He did produce a moment of quality with his assist in fairness.

Phil Foden – 5.5

Looked fairly bright in the opening exchanges, but as Manchester City’s struggles wore on, he was increasingly playing ‘hero ball’ and trying to save his team himself with outlandish shots which had no hope of going in.

Bernardo Silva – 5

All the endeavour and drive you know you’re going to get from him, but nowhere near enough penetration to make the difference in attack.

Matheus Nunes – 7

The only danger to Bournemouth’s backline for much of the game. One or two frustrating decisions, but on a day like today, other players probably racked up those numbers in the span of five minutes.

Erling Haaland – 4

Had to cope with physical attention which left him in pain all too often, but that doesn’t exonerate him from criticism for his shoddy work otherwise. Massive late chance missed.

Substitutes

Rico Lewis – 6

Some neat work in and around the area but nothing to penetrate.

Jeremy Doku – 6.5

Gave attacking drive and increased the threat level to Bournemouth.