Bournemouth 0 - 1 Manchester City - JOTS, Stats Link & Post Match Reax | Vital Football

Bournemouth 0 - 1 Manchester City - JOTS, Stats Link & Post Match Reax

Johnny Baguette

Alert Team
Pressure Back On Liverpool As Mahrez Bails Out Misfiring City

Johnny On The Spot: #PROFLIGATE. With 810 passes and one vital goal City prevail again despite another glorious bounty of corners and chances going to waste…

Bournemouth started the game with a heavily defensive set up not unlike the one City struggled to break down in midweek at home to West Ham. They could hardly get a touch of the ball in the opening 47 minutes. As soon as the Blues lost the ball, it was won straight back. But the Cherries, just like the Hammers, energetically blocked everything that moved towards their goal whilst City’s profligacy did the rest, much to the immense frustration of Pep Guardiola and City’s travelling army.

Either side of half time, a season strafed with key injuries to the champions was dealt two more blows. First, Kevin De Bruyne, whose deliveries had been increasing in wickedness as his rehabilitation from knee-knack continued, went down and asked to be withdrawn immediately. Then, with the taste of the half time oranges still being savoured, John Stones was also forced to come off. Pep had been forced into two changes. He opted for Riyad “Rodney” Mahrez and Vincent Kompany.

And it was Mahrez who instinctively broke the deadlock, drilling in his 11th Manchester City goal with David Silva providing his 80th Premier League assist to leave “Gnasher” Klopp punching the walls of his solarium on Merseyslide.

The Vitality Stadium boisterously looked to their side for a Plan B out of a sea of negativity, but Eddie Howe’s side stuck rigidly to their damage limitation game plan. The centurions meanwhile found themselves again in stick or twist territory. Push on for more goals or opt for game management? The answer was more of the former. Total domination of their hosts and some glaring misses despite Kun Agüero’s ever present menace. I would suggest that were this game to have been played out at a less intensive phase of the season; Bournemouth would have been given a good hiding. When everything next clicks for the Blues, somebody is in for a right pasting.

City’s 37th win in a thus far 46 game season leaves us looking at a golden chance to maintain progress on 3 remaining offensives before a welcome international break wherein one hopes the entire squad throw a sicky. A Premier League-Champions League-FA Cup triple header beckons. Watford and Schalke come to town before the Blues go to Championship Swansea. Maintain the forwards momentum in those games and looking at that continually nagging injury list, we will be starting to believe in miracles. All credit to our City. They are clearly giving it everything they’ve got.

This is an EXTRAORDINARY title defence. The rub of the refereeing decisions have been against us, the injuries have piled up amidst media criticism and accusations against the club while we are STILL active in 3 other competitions, having already won another. The most bizarre aspect is that these achievements are passing completely under the radar while the hacks and pundits focus solely upon rooting for Liverpool or Alex Ferguson's resurgence of United. Stunning.

JB’s Man of The Match: Oleks Zinchenko. Was at the industrious heart of everything City did.

https://manchestercity.vitalfootbal...liverpool-as-mahrez-bails-out-misfiring-city/
 
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'A professional performance'
Bournemouth 0-1 Man City

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Nigel Reo-Coker
Former West Ham midfielder on BBC Radio 5 Live

As soon as the final whistle went you could see the delight from Pep Guardiola. A big win and he knew how big. Bournemouth can be a difficult place to get a result but Man City got the result very professionally. A win is what they needed.
 
Riyad Mahrez: "It is a small pitch, against 5-4-1 it is not easy to play but we did very good in the first half. Second was good as well but most important was to avoid the counter and to score.
"We had to be very patient, we can always create chances. Be patient, move the ball quickly, we’ll get space and score.

"It is always like this, when you play away and win by one, you think they might come back. But they didn’t have too many chances to be honest. Perfect game for us. Liverpool are playing tomorrow. We’ll see but a long way to go."
 
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola speaking to BBC Sport:

"We made one of the best performances we have played, they were very organised. But they didn’t have one shot, we defended well from throw-ins and free-kicks. We created a few chances, people should understand how difficult it is to attack 11 players [who are defending]. Thanks to the players, they are absolutely incredible.

"We demand a lot of the players without giving them the time to rest physiologically, that is why it is incredible. No matter what happens this season they deserve my admiration

"Vincent Kompany wasn’t 100% John Stones does not have a big problem, it was a precaution, Kevin [de Bruyne] will be out for a while with a muscular problem, hamstring."
 
Thank God it's just a hammo for Kev. Not unusual for long term repeat knee injury sufferers to pick up muscle injuries. Ditto Mad Mendy. They need a summer off.
 
JOTS Evening Pink late edition addition:

This is an EXTRAORDINARY title defence. The rub of the refereeing decisions have been against us, the injuries have piled up amidst media criticism and accusations against the club while we are STILL active in 3 other competitions, having already won another. The most bizarre aspect is that these achievements are passing completely under the radar while the hacks and pundits focus solely upon rooting for Liverpool or Alex Ferguson's resurgence of United. Stunning.
 
JOTS Evening Pink late edition addition:

This is an EXTRAORDINARY title defence. The rub of the refereeing decisions have been against us, the injuries have piled up amidst media criticism and accusations against the club while we are STILL active in 3 other competitions, having already won another. The most bizarre aspect is that these achievements are passing completely under the radar while the hacks and pundits focus solely upon rooting for Liverpool or Alex Ferguson's resurgence of United. Stunning.

Anyone else defends a title with such tenacity and it would be worthy of comment for sure especially given the injuries that we have shipped. Last season’s player of the year KDB - hardly featured. Mendy - a key component of Pep’s plan, missing for most of the last two seasons. Ferna and Laporte, both of whom have been acknowledged as pivotal to the team - both now absent. And all whist we are maintaining a fight for all four trophies something no one else is managing. #undertheradar