Manchester City 4-0 Bournemouth: Sergio Aguero hits two as Raheem Sterling and Danilo also net to as Pep Guardiola's extend winning run to 17 victories

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Manchester City toyed with their prey at the Etihad on Saturday. They did not humiliate them with an avalanche of goals. They contented themselves with a mere four. They did not tear them to pieces. They played with them like a cat who has a mouse it cannot be bothered to kill.

They made intricate patterns with their passes and their movement and they kept the ball for minutes at a time, making Bournemouth chase and sweat and harry. Eddie Howe packed his midfield as tightly as sardines in a tin, all in vain. City did not move out of first gear. They did not need to.

They picked them off four times, punishing a mistake on the first occasion and relying on a sublime piece of creative skill by Sergio Aguero on the second before finishing them off with two clinical late finishes. Aguero is supposed to be discontented at City. If even the unhappy ones play like this, the rest of the league is in even deeper trouble than we thought.

Manchester City extended their Premier League winning record to 17 as they eased to a 4-0 win over Bournemouth

Sergio Aguero headed in at the back post to opening the scoring for Manchester City after 27 minutes

The goal was Aguero's 100th at the Etihad Stadium and set City on their way to yet another comfortable victory

Aguero celebrated his goal with his team-mates and also paid tribute to the crowd after his stooping header found the net

Winger Raheem Sterling made it 2-0 when he latched onto a sumptuous through ball from Aguero 

Sterling confidently took the shot on first time and slotted past Asmir Begovic to give City some breathing space

Sterling scored his seventh goal against the Cherries in the past three seasons and was mobbed by team-mate Kyle Walker 

MATCH FACTS, PLAYER RATINGS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE 

Man City: Ederson 6, Walker 6, Kompany 6, Otamendi 6, Delph 6 (Danilo 81, 7); Silva 7, Fernandinho 7, De Bruyne 7 (Gundogan 73,  6); Sterling 7, Aguero 9, Sane 6 (Bernardo Silva 67, 8) 

Subs not used: Bravo, Mangala, Gabriel Jesus, Toure

Goals: Aguero 27 & 79, Sterling 52, Danilo 85

Bookings: None

Bournemouth: Begovic 6; Cook 5, Ake 5, Simpson 6 (Mousset 72, 5); Smith 5, Gosling 5, Surman 6, Fraser 6; Stanislas 5 (Pugh 12, 5), Ibe 6; Wilson 6 (Afobe 72, 5). 

Subs not used: Boruc, L Cook, Hyndman, Mahoney

Goals: None

Bookings: Smith

Referee: Mike Jones - 7

Attendance: 54,270

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Sergio Aguero opened the scoring after good pressure saw Manchester City win the ball in a dangerous area. For more statistics and match facts see our MATCHZONE.

 

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Just before the end, the crowd stood and gave their team a spontaneous round of applause as if they wanted to mark somehow this incredible run of victories they are witnessing. The rest of us sat and wondered when this astonishing sequence will ever end.

'Anyone's beatable,' Bournemouth boss, Eddie Howe, said after the game but he didn't sound too convinced. 'We came with a game plan to stay in the game as long as we could,' he added. That is about the extent of an opponent's ambition against Pep Guardiola's side these days.

Something is happening here at City. History is unfolding in front of us. No one has ever started an English season like this before. It is unlikely anyone will again. Lest you forget, this City team have now won 17 league games in succession. We are witnessing a football phenomenon.

The rest of the division is reduced to scanning their fixture list to see when there is half a chance they might at least draw a game. They have testing away fixtures against Newcastle and Crystal Palace over the holiday period but if there is a date that might give faint hope that the runaway train might at least be temporarily slowed, it is January 14 when they visit Anfield.

After Friday night's defensive performance against Arsenal, though, no one in their right mind would stake too much money on Liverpool holding out against a side of City's attacking riches. With City in this mood, with the machine looking so finely oiled, it is hard to see where their invincibility will be dented.

If the pressure of maintaining the winning run is in their minds, City are not showing it. 'Sometimes you have doubts about whether mentally they will be ready to do it again and again,' Guardiola said after the match, 'and that was what I was most impressed about.'

The records keep falling before them, too. When Aguero scored City's third on Sunday, it was their 100th goal in 2017. The last team to hit three figures in the top flight was the great Liverpool side of Bob Paisley who achieved the feat in 1982. They scored 106 that year but they played more games. City are moving in rare company.

Aguero then doubled his tally for the day and added a third for City as he rose to meet Bernardo Silva's cross

The Argentine once again demonstrated his ruthless finishing as he headed past the helpless Begovic 10 minutes from time

Substitute left-back Danilo then fired home his first goal for the club following a neat exchange of passes with Sterling

Both managers - Eddie Howe and Pep Guardiola - looked in good spirits as the teams played their last match before Christmas

Bournemouth winger Junior Stanislas was forced off through injury and replaced by Marc Pugh during the first half

There were a few nervy moments for the hosts and Jordon Ibe almost capitalised as Ederson sprinted out and missed the ball

At least until Manchester United played at Leicester, the victory put City 14 points clear at the top of the Premier League. They have 55 points from their first 19 games. They have not won anything yet so their claims to greatness will have to wait but the pace they are setting is quite breathtaking.

Strangely enough, Bournemouth had fashioned the first clear chance of the game in the 10th minute but Junior Stanislas snatched at his shot when it was dragged back to him from the byline and damaged his hamstring in the process. It was not the most auspicious start for the visitors.

Bournemouth already had a considerable injury list coming into the game and the forced withdrawal of Stanislas merely heightened the expectation that Howe's side might be on the wrong end of a cricket score. It was something of a surprise when they survived until midway through the first half without conceding.

They packed men behind the ball as it is only prudent to do against this City side and did their best to soak up the pressure. And all City could manage initially was a half chance that fell to Aguero and which he lifted high over the bar, a Fernandinho header from a corner that he could not keep down and a long range drive from Otamendi that stung the hands of Begovic. 

City goalkeeper Ederson rises high to punch a searching Bournemouth delivery away from his goal

The Brazilian had little to do in the second half and once again impressed with his pinpoint distribution throughout

So comfortable were City that they could even afford to substitute star man Kevin De Bruyne midway through the second half

Bournemouth offered very little in attack and joined the teams who have been comfortably beaten at the Etihad

A crowd of 54,270 saw the hosts at their emphatic best at the last game at the Etihad before Christmas 

But Bournemouth's defiance did not last and in the 27th minute, they were undone by City's relentless pressing. Delph intercepted a loose pass from Begovic as Bournemouth tried to work their way out of defence, Silva flicked it back to Fernandinho and Fernandinho's precise cross found Aguero unmarked 10 yards out.

Aguero dived full-length and guided his header past Begovic. It was his 100th goal in all competitions for City at The Etihad. 'Sergio Aguero is a legend,' Guardiola said. 'He will decide about his future and his life. I am so happy to have him here.'

Eight minutes into the second half, City went further ahead. Silva played the ball into Aguero and the Argentine, who was side-on to the goal, clipped a delightful flicked pass into the path of Sterling. Sterling ran on to it and rammed it past Begovic from 10 yards out.

It was a beautifully fashioned goal, a reminder of how simple genius like Aguero's can be. He may be City's greatest ever goalscorer but he also has the vision and the touch to provide one of the sweetest assists you will see this season.

As for Sterling, he simply cannot stop scoring. It was his 12th league goal of the season and rather a neat riposte to the moron who racially abused him outside City's training ground last week. Guardiola praised him to the skies later. 'Now he is enjoying taking his goalscoring opportunities,' the City boss said, 'whereas in the past, he was a bit scared.'

City turned the rest of the match into a training game and made Bournemouth chase shadows. Ten minutes from time, Aguero added a third when he ran on to a superb cross from substitute Bernardo Silva and powered another unstoppable header past Begovic. Second-half substitute Danilo administered the coup de grace with a fine low finish in the dying minutes. The juggernaut rolls on