Man City suffered their first Premier League defeat of 2024 as they were beaten 2-1 by Bournemouth after turning in a performance well below-par at the Vitality Stadium.
Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson struck to seal a deserved victory for the Cherries who had never before beaten the Cherries in the league in their entire history.
Liverpool’s comeback win at Brighton ensured they established themselves at the summit, at City’s expense.
Bournemouth smelled blood from the off. Inside two minutes, Ederson was forced into a double save to first deny Semenyo and then Justin Kluivert from the follow-up and, after the lively start continued, the laser-focused Semenyo turned and tucked home his fourth of the season after being picked out by Milos Kerkez.
Man City lacked any sort of fluency going forward and ended the first half, uncharacteristically, without a shot on target. Kerkez bravely blocked a drive from Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland skewed wide, but that was as good as it got.
A last-ditch save from Ederson prevented Evanilson from doubling the hosts’ lead shortly after the start of the second half, but the Brazilian did just that after 64 minutes, making early contact with a wicked Kerkez ball to catch the City stopper out.
Amazingly, it could have been three when the Cherries broke again within minutes, but Marcus Tavernier struck the post before Adam Smith somehow blazed the rebound over with the goal gaping.
Josko Gvardiol got on the end of an Ilkay Gundogan cross to loop in a header and halve the deficit, which set up an incredibly tense finale. But City knew their luck was out when Haaland guided a simple shot onto the post from point-blank range at the death.
