Manchester City extended their winning run in the Premier League to 17 consecutive games as they comfortably beat Bournemouth 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
The Citizens came into this game off the back of a tough quarter-final match away to Leicester City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, in which City keeper Claudio Bravo was the hero in a tense penalty shootout and helped send his side to the semi-finals against Bristol City. The game ended 1-1 in normal time, with a controversial, late penalty from Jamie Vardy enabling Leicester to peg back the away side at the death after City opened the scoring through Bernardo Silva. Opponents Bournemouth were thrashed by Liverpool in a 4-0 defeat at the Vitality Stadium.
Despite the Cherries frustrating City from the start, a poor clearance from Asmir Begovic found Fernandinho, who was able to pick out Sergio Aguero to nod in for 1-0. At the start of the second half, Raheem Sterling converted for the fifth consecutive game against Bournemouth to make it 2-0 after Aguero’s flicked pass evaded the Cherries’ backline. It became 3-0 with just over 10 minutes remaining as Aguero nodded in again for his 101st goal at the Etihad Stadium and City’s 100th goal in a calendar year, which eclipses the previous record set by Liverpool in 1982 (106). With five minutes to go, Danilo sealed the victory after running on to a Sterling through-ball and slotting past Begovic to ensure City fans will enjoy Christmas being at least 11 points clear of second place.
Here are our player ratings from the match.
