“But in the table beside, Kevin can sit there”.
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Heading the chasing pack are Everton, who stayed two points behind City with a 3-1 home win over Middlesbrough, Gareth Barry marking his 600th league appearance with a goal.
But De Bruyne’s moment of the match came in the 66th when he found more space and threaded a ideal angled through-ball to Gundogan, who ran into the area to meet the pass with a low finish that outfoxed goalkeeper Artur Boruc. Wilshere conceded the free-kick which led to City’s opener and was substituted after 68 minutes.
“He is a special, outstanding player”, Guardiola said.
Bacary Sagna is likely to feature as right-back while Leroy Sane could make his first start for his new club.
“It’s a case of him saying you are not right for this style of play that I want to play and he’s been proven right very quickly”. That is why he is a player on another level.
“We know the quality that they have but we’ve got to try and frustrate them and play our game and hopefully we can nick something”, he told the Bournemouth website.
In between those moments of class from De Bruyne, young forwards Kelechi Iheanacho and Raheem Sterling set each other up for goals on the counterattack as Bournemouth was continually picked off. City may also have Sergio Aguero, but this season De Bruyne has surged into the spotlight, kicking on from a highly impressive, if truncated, first season back in England. De Bruyne was instrumental in the buildup again, too, playing Iheanacho through to tee up Sterling.
Manchester City continued their ideal start under Pep Guardiola as a ruthless 4-0 victory over Bournemouth gave them an eighth successive win and a piece of club history. The incident was sparked by Smith running into Nolito off the ball.
Asked if he will soon be facing a selection dilemma for the centre of defence, Guardiola said: “Absolutely not”.
Pep Guardiola has again reiterated that Manchester City can still improve all over the field despite their flawless start to the campaign.
Theo Walcott and Granit Xhaka scored Arsenal’s other goals, with Robert Snodgrass replying for Hull with a penalty that made it 2-1 in the 79th.
Guardiola’s men turned on the style with some magnificent goals in their dismantling of Bournemouth, who simply had no answer to City’s pace, guile and relentless pressing.
“What’s important is we won a game just three days after a Champions League game, which is always tough”.
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But under Guardiola, this City team looks an entirely different proposition – even accounting for the fact that much of the personnel that started against Bournemouth were the same as last season.
