Man City 4-0 Bournemouth: Pep Guardiola’s champions continue impressive start to Premier League

This newest incarnation of Manchester City is 10 really good footballers and the other bloke who does things around the box that will decide more important games than this one.

And it isn’t Erling Haaland. Instead, Kevin De Bruyne. Comfortably Europe’s best midfielder for a while now, City are creating an even better version – more goals than ever and, it seems, the major beneficiary of Haaland’s introduction into this astonishing team.

De Bruyne is increasingly playing up alongside the striker as Pep Guardiola finds fresh ways to make sure his protagonist is as close to goal as possible, evidenced when sauntering to bend in the second of a cruise even more predictable than Scott Parker wearing a fitted grey cardigan during an uncomfortable heatwave.

Phil Foden made it three for Manchester City in the first-half as he netted in the 37th minute

Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring as he fired past Mark Travers

Guardiola was muttering to himself about there not being enough space for De Bruyne to execute the acute finish but then, De Bruyne is De Bruyne, a master of angles.

City are, within reason, letting him do what he wants at the moment, be it carrying possession from deep or whipping crosses from the right. He wanders off to the left, to Phil Foden’s delight when the youngster latched onto a through ball that nutmegged poor Chris Mepham and went in via two deflections as City scored their third eight minutes before half-time.

‘Kevin has started to… before it was just about assists, assists, assists,’ Guardiola said. ‘Now he’s enjoying winning games and scoring goals.’

By that point, this was all over. Bournemouth – heavily praised by Guardiola beforehand – decamped to their own box right from the off, conceded territory and hoped to remain compact enough to frustrate the champions yet class told rather quickly. Ahead inside 19 minutes through Ilkay Gundogan, and with quite a few chances before then, City swatted away newly promoted opposition with minimal fuss.

Gundogan celebrates his first Premier League goal of the season against Bournemouth 

Kevin De Bruyne scored Manchester City’s second goal of the game with a great effort

Rather less emotional than his last goal in front of the Etihad Stadium’s South Stand on that dramatic May afternoon, Gundogan’s opener was a product of Haaland. The Norwegian hadn’t actually touched the ball until then yet came to life when holding off two challenges, rolling two defenders to complete a one-two and assist for Gundogan who did the rest.

That is what City are getting from Haaland. He will not be involved for long spells – and the striker not touching it for almost 20 minutes in this team, with this amount of domination, does feel bizarre on the surface – but when he is, they click. He will be regularly occupied by at least two men and was forcefully barged off the ball by Jefferson Lerma seconds before the move that manufactured City’s advantage.

Teams cannot afford to pay him too much more attention than the rest though because give De Bruyne this much freedom and he will just take games away on his own.

He barely wasted a pass, completing 98 per cent of his passes by the time they were off for a second drinks break with around 20 minutes to go. He is dribbling with purpose and left with a goal and an assist. Last season’s 19 strikes were the most impressive numbers of his career and those will only improve this time as a result of what Haaland brings.

‘Erling has the most difficult job in the world: a striker when a team defends like Bournemouth,’ Guardiola said. ‘Three central defenders, two players in front, and you’re in the middle. How can you survive that? It’s a little bit of a question of time. Find the right tempo, the right movement. We will find him, assist him.’

Summer signing Erling Haaland failed to find the new for Manchester City against the Cherries

Haaland again bounced off a couple of markers on halfway in the build-up to De Bruyne’s goal, which saw Bournemouth back off and allow him to curl with the outside of his boot into the far corner on 31 minutes. Foden’s fortunate third was also mainly thanks to ingenuity from the fulcrum, who could end up with the captain’s armband when the squad take to the ballots over the coming weeks as they choose Fernandinho’s replacement.

Mark Travers, who had earlier denied Foden when De Bruyne threaded the needle, made a smart stop to deny the Belgian a second, before he then fired over from the edge of Bournemouth’s box. There were occasional forays into City’s half, and Ryan Christie almost capitalised on a rare Ruben Dias mix-up, yet their attempted counter attacks – always the best way to hurt Guardiola’s side – were largely nullified and Nathan Ake impressed in sweeping up as he continues to flourish after Chelsea’s failed bid over the summer.

‘The game was the game,’ Parker said. ‘We’ve played against a world-class team. We needed 11 men with 10 out of 10 performances and ride our luck. Man City away is not a game that will define our season. We have to work out where to improve but we go again now.’

There was concern over Jack Grealish who hurt his ankle but he was able to carry on

Parker will be buoyed by how the Cherries managed to contain the Premier League champions a little more readily after the break, although Guardiola’s side had long swapped sprints for jobs and just kept recycling the ball.

Haaland departed without scoring, going close on three occasions with only eight touches all afternoon, while Lerma put through his own net following good work by Joao Cancelo 11 minutes from time. Silly late tackles by Adam Smith were branded ‘unnecessary’ by Guardiola after skirmishes with Jack Grealish, the City bench and Cancelo.

Another full back, 17-year-old Rico Lewis, was afforded a debut after impressing on their pre-season tour in the United States and there was a long, pointed chorus of Bernardo Silva’s name when the little Portuguese was introduced from the bench. Barcelona finding a few million quid down the back of the sofa might be the only thing that can ruin Guardiola’s August.

Pep Guardiola celebrates during Manchester City’s comfortable victory against Bournemouth