Man City kill another Erling Haaland debate in Bournemouth stroll

It is often said in football that the matches defy scriptwriters, the action seemingly so unbelievable that nobody could have predicted what would happen. Manchester City versus Bournemouth was not one of those matches.

Pep Guardiola's Premier League title-winning machine up against a newly-promoted side that everybody expects to go down always looked like one of the bigger mismatches of the competition, and from the first whistle never threatened to look like anything else. Even still, it needed the help of new superstar Erling Haaland for a second successive week to make the Blue supremacy count.

Just in case it isn't tiring enough chasing a Guardiola side that has perfected the art of keeping the ball, Bournemouth arrived at the Etihad in temperatures more befitting the south coast. With drinks breaks introduced in light of the game being played in heat above 30 degrees, the task for Scott Parker and his men was simple: keep City out for four quarters.

Also read: City player ratings as De Bruyne runs Bournemouth ragged

Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, they couldn't. City were all over them from the off, with four corners in the opening seven minutes and Jack Stacey facing up to an even longer afternoon in the sun after getting booked for desperately hauling Riyad Mahrez down.

Bournemouth did hold out for over 17 minutes, but were undone by the strength and finesse of City's new No.9. There was an extra fizz in the crowd whenever the ball got played into the box, although it was further from goal that the Norwegian made an impact.

As Ilkay Gundogan played the ball into Haaland 25 yards out, he used his power to hold off both Jefferson Lerma and Ben Pearson before, as he fell to the turf, dinking it back