Manchester City v Bournemouth: Premier League – live!

25 mins: The players take drinks. Bournemouth will be heartened: they were outplayed for the first six minutes, but have stabilised since.

24 mins: Lerma shanks Mendy’s cross into the stands, and City have a corner. Gundogan takes, and Cook heads it away.

22 mins: Stacey’s cross from the right is headed away by Stones, just as Gosling was cocking his neck. Then King spins but shoots wide. Bournemouth are the more threatening side at present. “That was a great free kick by David Silva, especially considering that Lee Mason let the Bournemouth wall set up about seven yards from the ball,” writes JR, harking back to the goal. “As good as that kick by Silva was it wasn’t nearly as good as that pass by Ederson to Jesus a few minutes earlier. Mercy.”

17 mins: Kelly is booked for tugging Jesus’s shirt, unnecessarily as the Brazilian was in his own half and not heading anywhere interesting.

15 mins: Gosling makes the most of slight contact from Gundogan, and wins a free-kick in his own half. Despite conceding, Bournemouth overall seem to have been encouraged by the way this game has started.

13 mins: City have not had a great few minutes since the goal. Their passing has been less precise, and Bournemouth have had a couple of opportunities having won the ball to play an incisive pass. They haven’t taken them, but still.

9 mins: Fernandinho cracks a stinging low drive just wide from 25 yards.

7 mins: It was an excellent shooting chance, with Bournemouth setting up an almost completely abysmal wall – if the free-kick was taken by a left-footer it was basically useless. Silva didn’t have to put the ball over the wall, just past them.

A fabulous free-kick from David Silva, which clips the crossbar on its way in!

5 mins: Lerma goes straight through David Silva in an attempt to win the ball. He does in fact win the ball, but by then David Silva is on his arse.

4 mins: Lloyd Kelly does a rubbish long throw. Ederson eventually picks it up, and launches a phenomenal long-distance pass to send Jesus running down the right. The only problem is that the Brazilian has to wait about for an age for anyone to catch him up, and then his clever pass infield runs just beyond Silva. The pass from Ederson, though, was just ludicrous.

2 mins: Walker’s cross is pretty decent, but too high for Jesus and David Silva. Ramsdale will have Bournemouth’s second kick of the game.

“It is annoying how well City play when they continue to bring in so many players (one never notices, except in defence),” writes Ian Copestake. “It is almost as if the very club is time-barred from being affected by changes imposed on it.” While I agree that time-barring is obviously important to them, I’ve been surprised by how well they’ve been playing of late. Even when they lost against Southampton – my favourite game since the restart, I think – they played pretty well, but just didn’t get the proverbial rub of the green.

The players are on their way out. I think Bournemouth need to win one and lose no more than one of their three remaining games if they are to stay up. Which column will this one go in? We’re about to find out!

Pep Guardiola is asked what is motivating his players tonight:

I think the players like to play football, and once they play they want to play, try to win. For the competition, for Bournemouth, for all the contenders. And try to play good.

He’s asked if his team has been selected with Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final in mind:

A little bit, but some of the players who play are going to play on Saturday. Since we came back after lockdown, every game [I change] five or six players. I continue the same way.

Eddie Howe has a chat with Sky, and is asked quite how difficult tonight’s task is:

As hard as it gets. We’re well aware of that. But it’s possible, and we take great heart from our last game, when we showed all the ingredients necessary to get us out of the difficult position we’re in. It was just nice to win again, to feel that feeling. We’re desperate for it to continue. We know we’re coming to one of the hardest grounds in the Premier League. We’re going to give it our best. Touch wood we’ll be organised and resolute, and then try to be a threat the other way as well.

Plenty of changes for Manchester City, who have half an eye on Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal and so bring in Otamendi, Stones, Gundogan, Fernandinho, David Silva and Phil Foden and leave out Laporte, Garcia, Rodri, De Bruyne, Sterling and Mahrez, who are all on the bench.

Four changes for Bournemouth, who have a superficially more winnable match at home to Southampton on Saturday which might have helped persuade Eddie Howe to leave David Brooks, Callum Wilson and Arnaut Danjuma on the bench. Nathan Ake, who was injured in the 4-1 win against Leicester, is excluded less voluntarily. Cook, Billing, King and Stanislas come in.

These are the names on tonight’s team sheets:

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Otamendi, Stones, Mendy, Gundogan, Fernandinho, Silva, Bernardo Silva, Gabriel Jesus, Foden. Subs: Sterling, Zinchenko, Laporte, Rodri, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Carson, Eric Garcia, Doyle.
Bournemouth: Ramsdale, Stacey, Steve Cook, Kelly, Rico, Stanislas, Gosling, Billing, Lerma, King, Solanke. Subs: Boruc, Surman, Callum Wilson, Danjuma, Lewis Cook, Brooks, Harry Wilson, Simpson, Surridge.
Referee: Lee Mason.

Hello world!

While acknowledging that Brighton are not yet mathematically safe, in all probability the remaining relegation places will be filled by two of West Ham, Watford, Bournemouth and Aston Villa. The slightly curious thing here is that with just three games to play, three teams must still play two of these relegation-haunted sides, and one of those is one of them themselves, namely West Ham.

The other two are Everton (who face Aston Villa tomorrow and Bournemouth on the final day) and Manchester City (who play Watford in the league game after this one), and it could be that the Cherries and the Hornets end up separated by nothing more than the level of their pastings by Pep Guardiola’s runners-up.

In six league games since the restart City have won 5-0 on three occasions and 4-0 on another, and generally appeared to be purring. Sure, they lost at both Chelsea and Southampton, but both of those teams are considerably better than either Bournemouth or Watford, whose records against Guardiola’s side are both honkingly awful.

City have won their last nine games against Bournemouth by an aggregate score of 28-4 and last failed to beat them way back in the 20th century, while their last 12 against Watford were all won and included a 5-0, two 6-0s and an 8-0. The Hornets are three points ahead of Bournemouth with a goal difference also better by three, and even if City win both games if either one concedes a few more goals than the other it could effectively cost them goal difference supremacy, which is equivalent to a point. In other words, a stonkingly big City win here could effectively be as useful for Watford as them getting a bonus extra fixture and drawing it.

But something strange is happening to Bournemouth. After a run of one out of a possible 24 points that Harry Kane penalty decision went in their favour, followed by Leicester’s bizarre self-immolation at the weekend, and suddenly they have bagged four out of six from two difficult fixtures and are back on the survival trail. Surely the football gods can’t pull off another miracle tonight?

City meanwhile are second, will stay second, have already vanquished Uefa this week and are good at the football.