Manchester City saw their unbeaten start to the season come to an end last weekend.
Specifically, City were handed their first defeat of the season by losing 2-1 to Bournemouth on Saturday.
Evanilson doubled the home side’s lead during the second half after Antoine Semenyo scored in the ninth minute to take the Manchester club’s tally of league goals conceded this season to 11.
The 82nd minute saw Josko Gvardiol score his sixth away goal of 2024 – equalling Nicolas Jackson and Mohammed Salah – but it wasn’t enough for Pep Guardiola’s side to leave the South Coast with any points.
Following this match, a pundit and former Premier League player made a claim about a specific figure in City’s squad regarding what happened to him on the pitch.
- Man City 2024/25 squad cost in full: Transfer fees and stats for every player
Troy Deeney makes Matheus Nunes claim after Bournemouth defeat
In his latest Team of the Week article for BBC Sport, Troy Deeney gave this verdict about Adam Smith’s efforts at right-back for the Cherries against City and Matheus Nunes more specifically.
He said: “As captain at right-back Smith showed his experience and guile, he was excellent. He made Matheus Nunes look bang average, he didn’t get past him once.”
Nunes was actually a bright spark for City
Heading into the Bournemouth match, Nunes had scored two goals and delivered three assists in his three previous matches across all competitions.
Even though he was unable to add another goal contribution to his tally for the season against the Cherries, the £53m player was still a bright spark for the Blues.
Specifically, the midfielder, who has been playing on the left-wing in the absence of of Jack Grealish, delivered five key passes in total against Bournemouth, which is more than any other City player on the day.
In fact, Nunes created more chances than any other Premier League player over the entire weekend.
He also made five tackles and won 10 of the 15 duels he was involved in, ultimately earning himself an overall match rating of 7.7/10.
In fact, only Gvardiol was given a higher match rating (7.8/10) than Nunes.
Having proved himself to be one of the Manchester club’s best performers on the day, it’s hard to agree with Deeney’s assessment that Nunes looked average against Bournemouth.
