The arrival of Raheem Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne in the summer was designed primarily to bring more pace, creativity and goal threat to an attack already boasting the superlative talents of Sergio Agüero and David Silva. Manchester City’s fearsome foursome have been fashioned squarely with delivering the Barclays Premier League title and Champions League in mind.
There was an added logic to spending about £100 million on two of Europe’s brightest young talents, though. Having Sterling and De Bruyne in their midst would help to cushion the blow when Agüero, with his persistent muscle problems, and Silva, with his vulnerable ankles, are absent and ensure that the intangible fear factor remains.
With Agüero ruled out for at least a month with a torn hamstring and Silva facing another fortnight on the sidelines with sprained ankle ligaments, Saturday represented the first test of whether Sterling and De Bruyne could step up to the mark without that gilded pair for company. It was one they passed with a flourish, and while Seville in the Champions League on Wednesday and Manchester United at Old Trafford four days later will provide a much sterner examination of their credentials, this was a handsome start and a considerable boon for Manuel Pellegrini before the biggest week of City’s season.
After an encouraging start in the wake of his £44 million move from Liverpool, Sterling had faded of late and was withdrawn at half-time in City’s 6-1 thrashing of Newcastle United in their previous league match when the scoreline was still level. This marked an eye-catching return to form, a beautifully taken hat-trick — the first of his top-flight career — a glimpse of the havoc the England forward could wreak once he fine-tunes his inconsistent finishing. Behind him, De Bruyne, a £55 million signing from Wolfsburg, was unplayable at times and, to complete an encouraging afternoon’s work for Pellegrini, was the sight of Wilfried Bony getting among the goals again after what the Ivory Coast striker, struck down by malaria in the summer, had described as the “worst spell” of his career.
Bony scored twice — as many as he had managed in his previous 19 appearances for City since his £28 million move from Swansea City in January — and also held the ball up brilliantly.
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So can the trio repeat the trick against Seville and United? “It’s always a blow when you lose players of that quality,” De Bruyne said in reference to Agüero and Silva. “But we need to maintain that level and try to win without them. It’s not an excuse when we lose to say it was because they were not fit.
“If you want to win titles you need to get on and do it with the players you have, rather than worrying about the ones who are not fit.”
It helped that Adam Federici had a day to forget in goal and Bournemouth’s defence was all over the place. A late replacement for Artur Boruc, who got injured in the warm-up, Federici was at fault for City’s second goal, spilling a simple cross that Bony pounced on, and the fourth, which brought up Sterling’s hat-trick. The marking for the first and fifth left much to be desired, too, although even Eddie Howe, the Bournemouth manager, must have admired City’s third. It really could have been Silva and Agüero at work. From just inside his own half, De Bruyne played a wonderful through ball into the path of Sterling who, timing his run perfectly, demonstrated great composure to side-step two defenders before slotting into the corner.
“In the style that we play, good players will always score goals,” Pellegrini said. “We will continue waiting for Kun [Agüero] and David [to come back] but I was very happy with the performances of Bony, Raheem and Kevin.”
Pellegrini was less happy with Agüero and Vincent Kompany, an unused substitute against Bournemouth, for playing for Argentina and Belgium respectively, despite concerns over their fitness. The City manager suggested that Agüero needed to learn to take better care of himself. “It’s not bad luck [that he suffered an injury] because he felt the pain before that game,” Pellegrini said. “Maybe he could have taken more precautions but it’s difficult not to play for your national squad.”
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Kompany is expected to return against Seville after playing for Belgium against Israel in what appeared a mini act of defiance given Pellegrini’s worries about a calf injury that the defender was suffering from.
RATINGS
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): J Hart 7 — P Zabaleta 7, N Otamendi 6, E Mangala 6, B Sagna 7 — Fernandinho 8, Y Touré 5 (sub: Fernando, 46min 7) — J Navas 7, R Sterling 8 (sub: K Iheanacho, 78), K De Bruyne 8 (sub: S Nasri, 62 6) — W Bony 8. Substitutes not used: W Caballero, M Demichelis, V Kompany, P Roberts. Booked: Otamendi, Sagna.
Bournemouth (4-1-4-1): A Federici 3 — S Francis 5, S Cook 4, S Distin 4, C Daniels 5 — A Surman 4 — A Smith 5 (sub: M Pugh, 78), E O’Kane 5 (sub: S MacDonald, 65 6), D Gosling 6, M Ritchie 6 — G Murray 6 (sub: J King, 74). Substitutes not used: L Tomlin, J Bennett, B Cargill, Y Kermorgant. Booked: Ritchie.
Referee: M Dean. Attendance: 54,502.