Bournemouth held for 80 minutes. Then Enzo Maresca sent on Rayan Cherki

For eighty minutes this was Bournemouth's game to hold. Marcus Tavernier had finished a low Evanilson cross on 26 minutes, Erling Haaland had missed enough clear chances to fill a highlights reel of the wrong kind, and Marco Rose's side were organised enough to make 66% possession look harmless.

Then Rayan Cherki came on and the shape of the afternoon changed. His corner on 84 found Marc Guehi unmarked, and Guehi headed it in. Two minutes into stoppage time Cherki set up Josko Gvardiol, whose finish was flagged offside on the field and given by VAR.

Guehi in midfield, and a manager not pretending

City used Guehi in an experimental central midfield role, which is the sort of thing that either looks clever or looks desperate depending on the last six minutes. He scored, so it looked clever.

Maresca was not selling it as more than it was: "Unfortunately, this is a work in progress. We need to prepare the team for the season." Rose, on the other side: "We have to defend better. The game is never over here."

Bournemouth put four of their five shots on target and lost. City had thirteen and needed a substitute to make two of them count.

Match facts

• 26' — Marcus Tavernier (Bournemouth), assisted by Evanilson
• 84' — Marc Guehi (Manchester City), header from a Rayan Cherki corner
• 90+2' — Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City), given after a VAR offside review
• Cherki assisted both Manchester City goals after coming off the bench

What's next

Manchester City go to Crystal Palace on Friday 28 August, five days on and with the same questions unanswered. Bournemouth host Everton on Saturday 29 August — a game they will fancy, and a reminder that they were six minutes from taking something off the Etihad.

Cherki's cameo was the start of something

Six minutes off the bench to set up both goals looked like a one-off at the time. It was not. A week later at Selhurst Park, Maresca gave Cherki the whole second half against Crystal Palace, and he scored twice in five minutes — on 54 and 59 — in a 4-1 win that also included two Erling Haaland goals. Asked afterwards how he felt about being the one Maresca kept turning to off the bench, Cherki did not hide his ambition: "When I see Enzo wants to change me, I don't like that." By matchweek 3, at the Etihad again, Haaland reached his 300th career club goal with a header from an Antoine Semenyo cross to beat a deep-defending Coventry City 1-0 — a third different way to win a match in three attempts, as Maresca's side described it themselves afterwards: a stoppage-time squeeze against Bournemouth, a rout at Selhurst Park, then a grind against a team that refused to open up.

The habit this match started

There turned out to be a pattern hiding in Bournemouth's afternoon at the Etihad. Marco Rose's side had led since the 26th minute and were still ahead with ten minutes left before conceding twice in the closing stages — Guehi's header came on 84, Gvardiol's winner two minutes into added time — and it was not a one-off collapse. A week later, at home to Everton, Bournemouth were seconds from a first home win of Rose's tenure when James Tarkowski equalised in the 91st minute. A week after that, at Newcastle, Bournemouth led 2-0 inside 35 minutes and still finished with a 2-2 draw, Jacob Ramsey's 88th-minute strike completing the point. Three matchweeks in, Bournemouth had become the first Premier League side that season to score first in three consecutive games without winning any of them — and the Manchester City match, not the Everton or Newcastle ones, was where the habit began.

Three matchweeks on the table

Manchester City's win over Bournemouth was the first of three straight victories to open the season. Three matchweeks in, City sit top of the Premier League on 9 points from three wins, a goal difference of +5 (7 scored, 2 conceded) — level on points and goal difference with Arsenal, but ahead of them on goals scored. Bournemouth's afternoon went the other way: the defeat left them with zero points from their opener, and two draws since have taken them to 2 points from three games, 15th in the table with 4 goals scored and 5 conceded.