Manchester City was able to appear consistent performance at the start of the season when Kevin De Bruyne was injured because Pep Guardiola had several alternatives for the attacking midfielder position and even gave Julian Alvarez a new position to fill De Bruyne's position. However, Kevin De Bruyne's return from injury has made Manchester City's performance quit better, especially since they have to focus on the crucial Premier League and Champions League matches.
I don't think the same with Manchester City performance without Kevin De Bruyne, he was success make Erling Haaland return consistency for scoring goals again and seems how important with magician from De Bruyne.
Next match, Manchester City will face Bournemouth and have keep get three points if won't loss their 2nd standings position taken by Arsenal, in other side three points achievement help them keep pressure Liverpool on the top standings if win upcoming match.
The impact produced by the presence of Kevin De Bruyne is indeed that big and we can see that Manchester City's game is becoming more and more charming. But currently Manchester City cannot be said to be good because they have to overcome late wins which can sometimes be detrimental to them. Manchester City must be alert to all possibilities even though they are favored to win. I think Kevin De Bruyne will continue to improve and it is just a matter of time for him to gradually improve his performance.
Against Bournemouth is not a difficult obstacle for Manchester City and I still believe they can still win. But it is true that the previous victory was also against a weak team and I think Manchester City must realize that this time they will not be able to win convincingly without winning by more goals from the start of the match. It would be very detrimental if they repeated the same result and as I said above they must be able to win decisively from the start and not have trouble at the last minute to achieve victory. Liverpool and Arsenal are the teams that will continue to squeeze them in the standings.
I really do think this match against Bournemouth will be a very easy game for them unlike the previous two matches that they struggled to get a positive results from, the last meeting between them both, man city came out victorious with a 6-1 thumping at the Etihad, and I still believe that they will still be victorious unless they put in a shocker of a performance.
As it's stance now, this man city team cannot afford any more slip up due to the fact that arsenal are just breathing down their neck and they can't just allow the gap between them and Liverpool who are the league leaders to widen, so it's a must win game for them which I believe they will.