Sterling hat-trick seals City win

Posted Sunday, October 18, 2015 by Foxsports.com

Three goals from Raheem Sterling sealed an emphatic 5-1 win for Manchester City over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.

Manchester City 5 Bournemouth 1
Bournemouth woeful in defence
Sterling nets hattrick
Bony adds brace
Murray scores consolation
Match summary

Despite a good start from Bournemouth, it was Manchester City who opened the scoring through Sterling in the seven minute of the game.

Wilfried Bony scored City's second, assisted by the brilliant Sterling, ten minutes in before Glenn Murray pulled one back for the visitors in the 21st minute.

From then it was all Manchester City and Sterling, as the winger added his second in the 28th minute and completed his hat-trick in first half stoppage time and effectively end the game as a contest.

However, City weren't done scoring and Bony added his second and the Citizens' fifth in the 89th minute to add an exclamation point to the win.

Full report

The Cherries had the first real chance of the game in the six minute as Dan Gosling burst through the middle to get behind Otamendi. The Argentine defender recovered well to make the tackle before Gosling could shoot, but replays showed he didn't actually play the ball.

Just one minute later Sterling gave the Citizens the lead. Zabaleta got on the end of a long ball to head it into the danger zone. Sylvain Distin should have been able to clear, but pressure from Bony allowed the ball to drop for Sterling who poked the ball in.

Bony benefitted from another defensive mistake to double the hosts lead in the 10th minute. Adam Federici spilled a routine catch inside the six-yard box and Ivory Coast international tapped it into the empty net.

Bournemouth thought they had clawed their way back into the game in the 21st minute as Murray found some space at the top of the hosts box and he hit a hard low shot past Hart.

However, seven minutes later Sterling restored his side's two-goal advantage thanks to another piece of terrible defending from the visitors. Sterling broke into the box from the left and feigned a couple of shots that fooled the defence far too easily, giving him the time and space to score from close range.

The 20-year-old completed his treble in first half injury time thanks to yet another defensive howler from Bournemouth. A long ball over the top caused the back five far more bother than it should have with Fedirici and Steve Cook making an awful hash of the situation.

Jesus Neves took advantage of the situation to steal the ball and should have scored himself, but took too long to allow the Cherries goalkeeper to get back in position to save his eventual shot. Sterling was there to pick up the rebound to score his third and seal the points for City.

The scoreline suggests a dominating performance for Manchester City, but it was more a result of Bournemouth's inability to defend than incisive attacking play from the hosts.

Sterling squandered a couple of good opportunities to add to his tally in the second half, but the pace of the game dropped off noticeably as City seemed happy with their three-goal cushion.

However, they would add a fifth goal late on as Navas spun away from his defender down the right wing before finding Bony in the box. The striker had his back to goal, but turned brilliantly and finished in the corner.