Man City vs Bournemouth: Haaland double helps Guardiola's men keep pressure on leaders Arsenal

Manchester City ran out 3-1 winners over Bournemouth, delivering the perfect response to last weekend's defeat against Aston Villa, and keeping in touch with league leaders Arsenal.

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 lay 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 with energy in the second half but failed to capitalise on some sloppiness by the hosts.

City extended their lead midway through the second half as Phil Foden poked the ball to Nico O’Reilly, who fired low into the bottom corner, putting the game beyond Bournemouth’s reach.