Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth Review

Premier League GW10

Off the back of the loss to Aston Villa, the form we’re seeing from Arsenal, and the impressive start Bournemouth has had to the season, this felt like a big game against a team that would test how Manchester City dealt with a man-to-man press. Semenyo is in incredible form, and the team was able to deal with that threat and punish the spaces left by Bournemouth when their press was baited.

MOTM: ERLING HAALAND

Notable Stats:

• Erling Haaland is only the third player ever to score 2+ goals in four or more consecutive Premier League home appearances, after Robbie Fowler (4 across 1995/1996) and Luis Suárez (5 in 2013).

• Erling Haaland has scored 12 Premier League goals this season; the only players to score as many or more in their side's first 10 matches of a campaign in the competition are Les Ferdinand (13 in 1995-96) and Haaland himself (15 in 2022-23).

• Since 2019/20, Erling Haaland has had the most seasons (5) with 20+ goals scored and 20 or fewer offsides, across Europe's T5 leagues.

• Erling has made 5+ progressive carries in a single match only five times across his career. Three of them have come during the 25/26 season. Europe's T5 Leagues only.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth

• xG: 2.29 - 0.72

• xThreat: 1.45 - 1.02

• Possession: 48.9% - 51.1%

• Field Tilt: 56.0% - 44.0%

• Penalty Box Shots: 13 - 4

• Deep Entries: 12 - 7

• PPDA: 16.0 - 9.1

• High Turnovers: 1 - 4

Here is an early look at the 8-game rolling average for xG and xGA by Manchester City this season, across all competitions. It’s still a small sample size, but promising. Last season, there was barely a gap between the two at this point. The defeats to Spurs and Brighton skewed the data significantly, with 2+ xGA conceded in those.

Here is how Erling Haaland’s cumulative xG and goals scored are looking across the opening ten Premier League games, only now beginning to overperform his expected numbers. Yet to have a penalty either. For club and country, Haaland has 26 goals this season. Over a 60-game season, he’s on track to score 98 goals. Yes, you read that right. He won’t play all of those games, the scoring rate will take dips, but even with that in mind, Haaland is in 22/23 form this season.

During the 2011/12 season, Lionel Messi scored 82 goals for club and country. How close will Erling Haaland get to that?

Ruben Dias (1,085) joins Erling Haaland (1,114) as the only two Manchester City players with over 1,000 minutes this season.

Donnarumma (900), Foden (907), and Reijnders (961) are the nearest to joining them.

Gvardiol - Dias as a starting CB pairing is currently unbeaten this season (7GP 5W 2D 5GA 3CS).

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Here is how Manchester City looked to set up in possession. On the right side, Silva drops to RB as Nunes pushes up and Cherki moves inside between the lines. Nico would drop between the CBs at times; they avoided using the CBs heavily for the buildup. On the left, Gvardiol will push up if Nico comes deeper. Doku and O’Reilly would swap between coming inside and holding width. For the most part, it was Doku inside.

The plan is quite simple. Stretch the distances, outnumber their 1st line of the press, and bait them. Once they jump, expose the space between the lines. In the first half, Iraola had his full-backs not follow the wingers inside. It was easy to outnumber their midfielders, which forced the CBs to jump up and support. Once they jump, the space opens up behind. In the second half, Iraola had the full-backs track our wingers inside. That then opened up space for the full-backs, which you see in the third goal.

The use of Foden dropping deep in the buildup as Nico Gonzalez pushes up, and O’Reilly goes high on the flank, helped to deal with the Bournemouth press. So did increasing the distances between the two CBs in the second half. On the right side, you had Bernardo Silva dropping deep as Nunes pushes up.

There was plenty of talk ahead of the match about how Guardiola would fit two 10s into the team, and then against Bournemouth, you see Doku, Foden, and Cherki between the lines in the middle of the pitch. As you can see from their touch maps below, all three were able to receive between the lines, turn, and create chances.

There was a good chance for Foden (6’), who takes an extra touch inside the box, leading to the shot getting blocked. Lovely pass from Jeremy Doku through 2-3 Bournemouth players into the penalty box. His passing ability when runners are ahead, like we’ve seen many times with De Bruyne, combining with him, is underrated.

E. Haaland 17' 1-0  

Bait the press, exploit the space behind. Chipped ball over the top from Nico to Cherki, unmarked by Truffert. Cherki flicks it on for Haaland, who heads the ball into the space in front as he continues his run. Finishing at the near-post with his left foot.

Bournemouth equalizes from a corner (25’), scored by Tyler Adams. For me, it’s a foul, but it’s going to split opinions. Especially with how the Premier League referees contact inside the box on keepers this season, they’re not giving many fouls right now.

E. Haaland 33' 2-1  

Pass through the lines from Nico to find Foden. Bournemouth players anticipate him turning to drive forward, so they drop back. Instead, it's laid off for Cherki to play the ball in behind. Haaland takes a touch and runs across the defender. This delays Diakite from getting back to the 6-yard box to make a clearance and stops him from making the challenge if Haaland drives straight toward the goal. Takes a touch past the keeper and shoots as he attempts to make the save, going underneath him.

The chances kept coming, continuing to expose the space behind. O’Reilly has a big one after a brilliant turn and dribble from Doku. Cleared off the line. Shortly after that, Doku puts Haaland through (37’), who attempts to chip the keeper, which is saved. Only one shot by Bournemouth in the first half inside the box, which was their set-piece goal.

Before the third goal, Bournemouth started the second half well and worked up to two chances for Kroupi (51’, 53’). Although quite easy for Donnarumma to save. A forward to keep an eye on, manages to slip out of sight of defenders, along his pace to arrive in the box.

N. O'Reilly 60' 3-1  

Cherki through the lines to Foden, receiving on the half-turn and playing through O'Reilly on the left side. Haaland, holding his position on the left side, stops Diakite from closing down O’Reilly.

Excellent little detail from O'Reilly that makes the goal is faking the shot on the edge of the box, the Bournemouth players attempt to block, then he drives into the box and shoots to the far right corner.

Cherki and Doku came off (72’) towards the end of the second half for Savinho and Reijnders. The former didn’t have his best appearance, but could have grabbed an assist with his pass inside to Marmoush. Certainly, for Cherki, he could have made some better decisions on the ball when the team is up 3-1, losing it a couple of times in bad areas. It’ll come with time. We’re not talking about stopping those creative passes in the final third. It’s in the middle of the pitch, when you’re up two goals, understand when is the right moment to take a risk and when not to.

Also great to see Rodri come on for the final minutes and be in line to play more against Dortmund midweek. Hopefully, after the international break, he’ll be a genuine option to start.

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Moving Forward

In the end, it was a game that Guardiola had the team set up perfectly for, and the players executed that plan. Important to see that against a team that presses as well as Bournemouth. City struggled against man-to-man presses earlier in the season and showed in this game that they’ve got the tools to beat those teams.

Both full-backs were excellent for a team that spent most of last season unsure of who was playing there every game. Rayan Cherki has laid down a marker in his performance. This is a player who is ready to deliver. Quite quickly were looking at 9-10 players that need to start as many games as possible this season, and would give them a great chance at winning the league.

This was the best game I’ve seen Nico Gonzalez play for Manchester City. We’ve seen the defensive work plenty of times this season, but against Bournemouth, he showed real confidence on the ball to take his time at the right moments, and when to drive the team forward. Chipped pass into Cherki for the first goal. Firing the ball into Foden in the lead-up to the second goal. He’s putting in performances now that make you think, when Rodri is back, Guardiola will need to fit Nico in alongside him.

Last season (48.1%) was the first under Guardiola, where they averaged an aerial duel win percentage lower than 50%. After the opening ten games of this season, they’re top of the Premier League (58.1%). Below is the win percentage for the top four defenders, for minutes played, since 2020/21.

Below is a rolling average from last season of the touches Manchester City had in Premier League matches. Broken down by the thirds. The dotted lines are the averages for those thirds for the opening ten Premier League matches this season.

I’d expect by the end of the season, the final third touches (purple) will be higher than defensive third touches (green). They’ve moved closer as each game goes by. The middle third touches (blue) are remaining at the peak we managed during points last season. Just looking at the opening games, the team is keeping the ball more in the middle third rather than squeezing the opposition high up the pitch into the final third, like we saw last season.

Next up for Manchester City is a home match against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. They are 3rd in the Bundesliga, and their only loss of the season was against Bayern Munich (A). Guirassy (7), Nmecha (4), and Brandt (4) lead the way as their top scorers across all competitions.

In the Bundesliga, their leaders for chances created are Ryerson (14) and Svensson (11). Two wing-backs. Giving you an idea of their approach. Playing with a back-five this season. Nico Schlotterbeck (LCB), the player to watch, has the passing range to pick out the wing-back on the opposite side of the pitch. An area City can be hurt.