There was just one shock at the Etihad Stadium on this sweltering afternoon: Erling Haaland failed to score. Manchester City made light work of newly-promoted Bournemouth, scoring four goals without reply, but the club’s star signing not registering a goal on his home debut will have been the one disappointment of an otherwise fine day’s work.

Pep Guardiola’s side were 3-0 by half-time, scoring the treble inside 18 first-half minutes, and a late own goal from Jefferson Lerma only added gloss to a comprehensive victory. Following their opening-day win against West Ham United, City have registered six goals and not conceded across their first two games of the season. Everyone else, beware!

Bournemouth will second that as they were simply unable to cope with the home side. Scott Parker had been pleased by his team’s return to the Premier League last weekend, when they triumphed 2-0 against Aston Villa, and will have known deep down that coming away from this game with anything at all was highly improbable.

The visitors had to contend with Kevin De Bruyne, who scored City’s second and provided the assist for their third which Phil Foden converted. The Belgian was in imperious form; completing 44 of his 45 passes and, as ever, giving City their forward thrust. The home side notched up 67 per cent possession and had 19 shots at goal, seven of which were on target — Bournemouth were up against it.

Story of the game

Bournemouth had to contend with losing Dominic Solanke on the eve of the game after the striker picked up an injury in training. Losing an attacking outlet may have seemed irrelevant for a team who were always going to have their backs against the wall. The reigning champions were playing in front of a home crowd for the first time since their dramatic title-clinching game against Villa in May.

Fortunately, much of the pitch was in shade at kick-off, but that didn’t prevent Bournemouth from feeling the heat. Within six minutes City had produced four teasing corners and were instantly knocking on Mark Travers’ door. The Bournemouth ‘keeper prevented Foden from opening the scoring when the City attacker, starting in place of Jack Grealish on the left, should have squared to Haaland for a tap-in.

Bournemouth touches were a rare commodity and it was only a matter of time before their defensive resolve would evaporate in the humid air. Haaland played his part in the breakthrough goal on 19 minutes when he cushioned a pass to Ilkay Gundogan despite having two Bournemouth defenders up his back. The German international drove the ball past Travers.

It was at that point that De Bruyne started to flex his muscles. Bournemouth were struggling to get close to the City midfield and on the half-hour mark De Bruyne ran at goal from over 30 yards out. When he arrived at the edge of the area, a swing of the right boot, connecting with the outside of his foot, picked out the bottom corner with his customary precision.

De Bruyne then went about cutting Bournemouth’s bewildered defence open again. The midfielder’s pass found Foden, whose run was not tracked by any of the Cherries defenders. His low shot found its way past Travers. Very quickly, the game had gotten away from Bournemouth — and any hope Parker had of his team remaining in the contest and trying to steal something on the break disappeared.

Seeing Haaland score on home turf, after the Norwegian netted twice on his Premier League debut last weekend, would have been the icing on the cake for the crowd gathered, but it proved to be an afternoon of  eight touches, a shot at goal and one assist before being substituted for Julian Alvarez, who was also making his home bow, with 15 minutes remaining.

Four minutes later and City had their fourth. Joao Cancelo delivered a cross into the area after making advances down the left wing and Lerma, the Bournemouth centre-back turned into his own net to bring this one-sided contest to an end.

Teams

Man City: Ederson; Walker (Lewis 82), Dias (Stones 64), Ake, Cancelo; De Bruyne, Rodri, Gundogan (Silva 65); Mahrez, Haaland (Alvarez 74), Foden (Grealish 46).

Subs (not used): Ortega, Mbete, Wilson-Esbrand, Delap.

Bournemouth: Travers; Lerma, Mepham, Kelly; Smith, Pearson, Cook (Billing 64), Stacey; Tavernier (Senesi 80), Christie (Stanislas 63); Moore (Lowe 90).

Subs (not used): Neto, Hill, Marcondes, Anthony, Dembele.

Referee: David Coote.