BOURNEMOUTH 0, MANCHESTER CITY 4
Manchester City returned to form in stunning fashion to coincide with the return to first team action of two of their long term injured attacking talents in Kevin De Bruyne and Samir Nasri.
Goals by Fernando, De Bruyne, Sergio Aguero and Aleksandar Kolarov saw off Bournemouth as City sought to get their domestic campaign back on track and earn enough points to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
De Bruyne, missing since the end of January when he sustained a knee ligament injury against Everton, continued as he left off and inspired the team to reach the heights once again on his return to first team action.
It’s been a long eight weeks since De Bruyne’s injury, and City fortunes have changed during the twelve games he missed.
During this time, City won the Capital One Cup in his absence but a youthful City side were dumped out of the FA Cup by Chelsea, and their title hopes were effectively ended with a run of just two league wins since the injury.
City did at least get past Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League and avoided the biggest guns in the draw for the quarter finals after being paired with Paris Saint Germain.
The Belgian was taken off before the hour mark and could feature for City in Paris next week although Nasri, who was a second half sub, was removed from the Champions League squad due to limits with the number of foreign-born players allowed.
It was effectively all over at the Vitality Stadium within the first 18 minutes with Fernando opening City’s account after just seven minutes with a smart volley from Jesus Navas’ corner.
David Silva’s flick provided the ammunition for De Bruyne’s long-awaited 12th goal of the season five minutes later while Aguero chipped in with a rare header from Navas’ cross to leave Bournemouth 3-0 down with less than a quarter of the game elapsed.
Aleks Kolarov’s injury time strike with the last kick of the game from a tight angle summed up City’s day in the sun.