Kevin De Bruyne played his final home game as Manchester City eased to a 3-1 win over Bournemouth to close in on a top-five finish.
Pep Guardiola said pre-match that distractions would only be harmful to his side's chances of securing Champions League football - neither De Bruyne's Etihad farewell nor Rodri's first appearance in a matchday squad since September should disturb the task at hand.
FA Cup final disappointment - just three short days ago - was swiftly displaced by the top-five mission, as Omar Marmoush rifled a spectacular opener in the 14th minute and Bernardo Silva added a well-taken second - but not before a glaring De Bruyne miss, which he later dubbed "terrible".
With a glittering career in sky blue drawing to an imminent close, the Belgian dominated most of the preamble, and drew audible gasps when hammering Marmoush's pullback surprisingly onto the crossbar from close range.
Bournemouth barely participated in the first half but came into the game briefly after the break, Antoine Semenyo and Milos Kerkez the most threatening of the bunch - doing their chances of a big summer move, with links to Man Utd and Liverpool respectively, no harm at all.
The visitors, fairly flat all evening, were then buoyed by the sending off of Mateo Kovacic midway through the second period for hauling back Evanilson, only for Lewis Cook to see red for a reckless challenge on Nico Gonzalez six minutes later. Gonzalez dealt due punishment by thundering a third one minute before the end.
Guardiola's side, who also welcomed back Rodri from an eight-month injury absence, capped a close-to-perfect night by moving third - despite having their clean sheet snatched away by Daniel Jebbison in stoppage time - two points ahead of rivals Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa with one game to go, while the Cherries' bid for eighth is over.
Skysports