Man City player ratings v Bournemouth - ‘Exceptional’ 10/10 performance as three more earn 8/10

Manchester City moved back to the top of the Premier League on Saturday after a 6-1 win over Bournemouth at the Etihad.

The champions enjoyed a relatively comfortable afternoon against Andoni Iraola’s side and were 4-0 up going into the final 20 minutes, mainly thanks to an outstanding display from star man Jeremy Doku. The Belgian netted City’s opener and then provided four assists in a remarkable personal performance.

It was a slightly frustrating opening half an hour for City, who patiently moved the ball around and looked to find miniscule gaps in the Bournemouth rearguard. In fact, the majority of shots came from distance, as Bernardo Silva twice curled effort off target from distance, as did Rodri in the 18th minute. Erling Haaland also looked dangerous as Lloyd Kelly was forced to scramble across and block his goal-bound strike, while the Norwegian’s back-post header crashed off the post.

Yet, three goals in eight minutes removed any tentative City concerns, with Doku at the heart of all three. The first, on 30 minutes, he placed into the back of the net after exchanging a one-two pass with Rodri at the edge of the box. The winger then teed up Silva for a simple finish past Andrei Radu, after some elaborate and well-coordinated footwork bamboozled Chris Mepham.

For City’s third, Doku collected the ball from Silva outside the area and fired into the Bournemouth net, only for replays to show it appeared to be going off target, before taking a nick off the back of Akanji.

Remarkably, the summer signing increased his tally of goal contributions up to four for the afternoon, when in the second half he shimmied his way through the Bournemouth midfield and flicked the ball into the path of Phil Foden, who powerfully fired into the back of the net.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic though, as Dominic Solanke saw a second-half goal disallowed and hit the crossbar on the hour mark. Bournemouth offered a threat down City’s right, and in the 74th minute Luis Sinisterra tapped in at the back post from Illya Zabarnyi’s cross, to give the travelling fans one moment of joy.

But City added two more in the latter stages as Doku’s defence-splitting pass found Silva, who then impudently flicked the ball over Radu and into the back of the net, before Nathan Ake’s dividing header from an Oscar Bobb cross made it six.

Here's how we rated the City players...