Bournemouth 0, Manchester City 1
Manchester City kept up the pace at the top of the Premier League with a hard fought 1-0 win at Bournemouth thanks to a Phil Foden goal.
Embed from Getty ImagesFoden scored the eventual winner after 24 minutes – tucking home his 16th goal of the season after Erling Haaland had a shot saved by Neto – the Cherries’ goalkeeper.
But rather than go on to score their usual hatful of goals on the south coast the under-par Champions had to battle to maintain the points against a Bournemouth side who were improved in the second half and adept at fast breaks in the second half but had never beaten the Blues.
City boss Pep Guardiola was proud of the effort put in by his players as they approach the crucial month of March – the Blues usually hit top gear at this time of year but they are currently struggling to get out of third.
He said: “I adore my players. They are so good.
“They are supermen, they play every three days, our fans have to be so proud of these guys.
“Seeing the team today, running, they had the desire to win this game.
“I don’t know what will happen at the end of the season but I will be there beside them.
“Our fans have to be so proud of these guys. We play more games than everyone else.”
Although City have earned 7 points out of the last 9 available they have only scored 3 goals from a total of 71 shots in the last 3 games against Chelsea, Brentford, and now Bournemouth.
Although the goals have dried up – their goal difference is now inferior to league leaders Liverpool and title challengers Arsenal – City still have their title hopes in their own hands – although a trip to Anfield in March after the Manchester Derby next week will surely be the game that might decide the fate of City’s Premier League title defence.
After the draw against Chelsea last weekend City can no longer afford to drop any more points as Liverpool look to give departing manager Jurgen Klopp and emotional send off at the end of this season.
Rather than the usual goalfests in previous years it was City’s defence that led to their current run of good form and Ederson recorded a new club record number of Premier League clean sheets with 110 from 242 games, beating previous holder Joe Hart who announced his retirement from football at the end of this season who had 109 from 266 games.