Our reporter Michael Plant gives his verdict on Manchester City's Premier League win over Bournemouth, with Jeremy Doku shining as Erling Haaland suffers an ankle injury.
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00:00 Hello, it's Michael Platt coming to you from the Etihad Stadium after tonight's, well this
00:05 afternoon's Premier League game between Manchester City and Bournemouth. Won the City, really
00:09 enjoyed, played pretty well in and earned a very comfortable 6-1 victory for the champions.
00:14 But there's only one man who really people are all talking about after this game and
00:18 that was Jeremy Doku. An absolutely fantastic performance from the Belgian winger. I did
00:23 player ratings as always after the match and I gave a very rare 10/10 today because he
00:27 was that super power. The winger played absolutely fantastic, tied the Bournemouth defence up
00:33 a notch repeatedly with his dribbles down the side, his quick feet, his dribbles inside
00:39 and as much as that he provided the opening goal for City with a lovely bit of interplay
00:46 and a finish past the Bournemouth goalkeeper. But after that he provided four assists for
00:52 team mates, absolutely remarkable. I kind of finished the game thinking to myself, I
00:55 can't believe that's a Premier League record. It's actually not but he is the youngest player
01:00 to have ever had five goal involvements in one match. Absolutely incredible performance
01:04 from him. One of the goals actually, a bit unfortunate from him, he'll have initially
01:09 thought that was going to be his goal, a shot from the edge of the area, it looked like
01:12 it went straight in off Doku's shot but we actually replayed it, it was just one off
01:17 target and took a little nick off by Mark Handie's back so it went down as his goal
01:20 but unbelievable display from Doku in just so many aspects. Pep Guardiola has been downstairs
01:25 speaking about the impact he has had since he came and just when he brings to City that
01:30 this is a guy who came in essentially to replace Riyad Mahrez and Mahrez was a fantastic player
01:35 but he was a very different player to Doku. Doku is so dynamic, so fast, an ability to
01:40 take players on and dribble past players. Guardiola has just said that he loves players
01:45 who do that, who take players on, dribble players. It's not something we really associate
01:48 with Guardiola and his possession-based football and dribbling, invariably you're going to
01:53 give the ball away more than a pass inside or looking to create a chance but he just
01:58 was talking about how much he loves Doku and just what a huge impact he's had since arriving
02:02 so huge performance from him and some of the assists were fantastic. One where he went
02:08 down the line really quick, feet absolutely, I think it was Chris Metham, he just completely
02:13 bamboozled them, knocked the ball across, Bernardo Silva finished. There was another
02:16 one where he essentially had to fence, split and pass through the Bournemouth back line
02:20 to find Silva with a little impudent chip over the Bournemouth goalkeeper Radu. Really
02:25 really good display from Doku. There was lots of other good performances, I thought Phil
02:29 Foden who actually came on at half time, played really well, I thought Kovacic, Jimmy Food
02:33 was really good as well, Julian Alvarez always playing well at the moment on the turn, Rodri
02:37 controlling things, really good performance just all round today from City and I think
02:42 I mean in my haste to kind of wax lyrical about Doku, I don't actually think I've said
02:49 all six goals, of course Doku got the first, Bernardo Silva then got the second, Manuela
02:54 Kanji third, Forde was Foden, fifth once again was Silva and in the sixth Nathan Ake with
03:01 a header, the only goal that actually Doku was involved in, a header at the back post
03:06 against his former club. But yeah really good performance from City, listen Bournemouth
03:10 did not from watch it from the office, I think I mean Uri Ola has said downstairs that he
03:13 feels it was a performance that doesn't deserve a 6-1 loss, I can understand what he means,
03:18 City had 8 shots on target and scored from 6 of them, I get what he means but you know
03:22 it's a game that City completely dominated, completely controlled, Bournemouth did have
03:25 a couple of little attacks, I mean they did get a goal through Sinisterra but there was
03:28 never any chance or any possibility of Bournemouth coming away from this game with the result
03:32 so yeah overall really really good display from City, they'll be really happy about it.
03:36 Just the one downer here today though is an injury to a certain Erling Haaland, now I
03:40 know a lot of fantasy football players and I include myself and that would be disappointed
03:44 that he didn't rack up any points today but he actually came off at half time with an
03:47 injury, of course didn't score in the first half, actually had a bit of a frustrating
03:50 first half, saw two decent shots blocked and hit the post with a header as well but it
03:58 was a good performance, I think his runs off the ball were pretty good even though his
04:01 shooting perhaps slightly, I was going to say let him down, that's probably a bit harsh
04:04 but he certainly didn't take his goals as he would have wanted but he came off at half
04:08 time, we've seen Limpin in the latter stages and didn't emerge for the second half, was
04:12 perhaps taken off and Pep Guardiola has just said down below that he's twisted his ankle,
04:18 we don't know the severity of it at this stage, I don't get the sense it's a really big injury
04:22 that he's really worried about, he said he hasn't spoke to the doctors so we'll certainly
04:25 see in the next couple of days, Pep will be speaking to the press on Monday ahead of the
04:28 Champions League game against Young Boys, we don't know at this stage but I asked if
04:32 he was going to be fit for Tuesday and Guardiola just said that he doesn't know so yeah we'll
04:35 have to certainly monitor that one, as I say a lot of I think FPL players will be looking
04:39 at that one but yeah after today's win it moves City back to the top of the Premier
04:42 League table at least until Monday when Tottenham are playing, I think Arsenal can technically
04:45 go above them in a game that's actually happening right as I speak but Arsenal have to win by
04:49 five goals, I think it's unlikely to happen against Newcastle so it's going to be up to
04:53 Spurs now to see if they can claw back first place, obviously still very early on in this
04:58 season but Guardiola will certainly be happy that they're at the top of the table at this
05:04 early stage and then just to add that City next game, I did mention Young Boys in the
05:08 Champions League, then a trip to Chelsea next Sunday in the Premier League and we then break
05:13 for another international break, the third of the season, I just feel like there's been
05:16 quite a few this campaign, more than usual anyway but yeah really good day as I say from
05:20 City, one they'll be happy about, six goals and even Haaland wasn't involved so they'll
05:24 just be fingers crossed from a City perspective that he is back soon but from me, Michael
05:28 Plant at the Etihad Stadium, thank you for watching.