Akin Ayomide
Erling Haaland scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the Premier League with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Sunday.
The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight. But Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games.
Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face next weekend.
Despite a first defeat in 10 games away to Aston Villa last weekend, Pep Guardiola remained confident his side can pose a threat to Arsenal come May.
There were more encouraging signs for Guardiola as Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden shone in creative roles, while Nico O’Riley became the first City player other than Haaland to score in the Premier League for over a month.
Buoyed by their unbeaten streak since losing at Liverpool on the opening night of the season, Bournemouth started brightly.
However, their brave high line was exposed on 17 minutes when Cherki’s header allowed Haaland to gallop clear from inside his own half to slam past Djordje Petrovic.
The visitors levelled eight minutes later when Gianluigi Donnarumma claimed he was impeded as the Italian tried to collect a corner and Tyler Adams thrashed home the loose ball.
But Haaland restored City’s advantage before half-time by racing onto another Cherki pass in behind the Bournemouth defense to round Petrovic and slot home his 26th goal for club and country this season. The 25-year-old also became only the third player to ever score multiple goals in four consecutive Premier League home games after Luis Suarez and Robbie Fowler.
Guardiola has called for greater contributions from his other attacking players to lessen the goalscoring burden on his prolific number nine.
Still no City player other than Haaland has scored more than once in the league this season, but O’Riley chipped in from full-back to seal the three points.
Foden was the creator this time as O’Riley strode forward before arrowing a low shot into the far corner.
Haaland was denied the chance of a hat-trick as he was replaced by Omar Marmoush eight minutes from time with one eye on facing his former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Wednesday. A double was enough to keep City still within range despite Arsenal’s rampant run of nine consecutive wins and seven straight clean sheets in all competitions.