SIMON Francis believes his team ran into the Premier League champions-elect on Saturday, but Cherries’ skipper was still left with a sense of frustration following their 4-0 defeat by Manchester City.

Eddie Howe’s side conceded twice in each half against a City team Francis says has moved into another sphere, even from the one that twice beat Cherries by a four-goal margin last season.

The visitors started Saturday’s match intent on making life as difficult as possible for Pep Guardiola’s battery of super-charged attackers – only to find themselves a goal behind when Kevin De Bruyne scored a 15th minute free-kick, conceded by Jack Wilshere.

"We were probably causing our own problems too many times this afternoon," Francis told the Echo.

"And that is what is especially disappointing.

"I thought we kept our shape well, especially in the first-half. But they scored their first goal from a free-kick we gave away, which is obviously sloppy.

"Then they scored (the second) at the end of a counter-attack from our set play. You can’t really legislate for those mistakes."

De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling, who scored City’s third goal just after half-time, were particularly outstanding for the hosts.

But while coping with that livewire duo alone would have made for an exacting 90 minutes’ work, Cherries’ rearguard also had to handle the stellar contributions of Kelechi Iheanacho and Ilkay Gundogan, the pair who struck the hosts’ second and fourth goals respectively.

"It is hard,’ said defender Francis, one of the men charged with containing City’s wealth of front-running stars.

"The formation they play, and we play it as well at times, is with one up front. But it never really is one up, because they’ve always got runners off Iheanacho.

"They have Gundogan and De Bruyne coming infield as well. Sterling stayed wide for the majority of the game. It is hard because you don’t know whether to come out of your hole as a centre half to pick someone up - or whether a midfielder has to do that.

"So it’s all about communication and we did work on that this week. But they’re unplayable at times. Certainly today they were."

Regardless of the calibre of Saturday’s opposition, Francis dismissed the idea that manager Howe and his players would be content to write the day off as one to forget.

He said: "We don’t often just brush games aside. We do evaluate very thoroughly. The manager is massive on that. That is why he is so good.

"We have a debrief. It’s obviously still a bit raw now after the result. But Monday morning we’ll be in, watching clips back, looking at the negatives and positives and at how we can improve."

But whatever faults Cherries’ pick out of their own performance, Francis is convinced Saturday’s victors are bound for great things under their new Spanish boss.

"I think they’ve improved so much as a team under Guardiola," said the 31-year-old. "He’s obviously proven as one of the best managers in the world. I think they’ll be challenging for the top two – and I’ll be surprised if they don’t win the title this season."