City smash Bournemouth in dominating fashion, sending four unanswered goals to the Premier League newcomer.
There is only one change to City’s starting line-up. Riyad Mahrez replaces Jack Grealish.
Lewis Cook, Ryan Christie and Jack Stacey appear in the Cherries’ starting line-up, replacing Phillip Billing, Jordan Zemura and Dominic Solanke.
The match starts with a desperate assault on the home side. The visitors’ defence is bursting at the seams and goalkeeper Mark Travers is celebrated with a couple of excellent saves.
And in the 18th minute, as City’s initial onslaught ebbs and flows, the score opens. Playing into the box with Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gündogan popped up into a killing position inside the penalty area and struck the goal with his left foot to make it 1-0.
After conceding a goal, Bournemouth started to play a little braver but on 31 minutes they broke into a productive counterattack. Kevin De Bruyne got the ball on the right flank, moved towards the centre, entered the penalty area and shot with the outside of his foot – 2-0.
Six minutes later, the Citizens catch their opponents once again. De Bruyne crossed to the left-hand edge of the penalty area for Phil Foden, who beat the goalkeeper to make it 3-0.
The second half looks rather dull. The home side dominate their opponents, but their attacks are lacking in sharpness.
However, another goal was scored by the Etihad crowd. In the 79th minute, Jefferson Lerma unsuccessfully intercepted Joao Cancelo’s cross, making it 4-0.
City give a masterclass to the Premier League newcomer, although they put a small part of their options into action for this win. In stretches you can see that the Citizens are as calm as a boa constrictor and see no point in going out of their way