Five things to look out for - Manchester City vs Fulham

10/04/2024 07:12 PM

City return to Premier League action and will hope to get back to winning ways.

Manchester City play their final game before the second international break of the season against high flying Fulham at the Etihad Stadium.

The Cottagers are in sixth place thanks largely to the performances of new signings such as Emile Smith-Rowe and resurgences from existing players, namely Adama Traore and Raul Jimenez.

City will still be confident of securing the three points; their attack has been firing on all cylinders recently and their defence is looking more solid every game despite a recent dip in actual results.

Here are five things to look out for in our clash with Marco Silva's side:

Haaland looking for another field day

Erling Haaland's last two matches have been more reminiscent of last season after a flying start to the league campaign.

Against Newcastle, he was feeding off scraps after Pep Guardiola named a lineup without any real risk takers, with Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku and Savinho all named on the bench.

And after blanking against the Magpies, he went into City's Champions League encounter with Slovan Bratislava hungry for goals, only to endure a difficult match in which he missed a few half chances and the end product from his fellow attackers was inconsistent.

He did eventually score a brilliantly taken goal, however, as he raced through on Lewis's Kevin de Bruyne-esque through ball and tapped into an empty net after rounding the goalkeeper.

James McAtee came on to replace Haaland just a few minutes after his goal to wrap him up in cotton wool before the Fulham match this weekend, where he'll be looking to score another hat trick as he did last campaign when the Blues won 5-1.

It probably won't be so comprehensive this time around, but City will nonetheless be confident of a win if Haaland is properly at the races.

How City cope with the duo of Jimenez and Traore

City will be suffering flashbacks from a few seasons ago as they come up against Traore and Jimenez; a lethal duo who have hurt them before for previous club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Jimenez set Traore up for two goals as Wolves beat City 2-0 at the Etihad in 2019, and the duo also bagged a goal each as they beat City later that same season 3-2 after coming from two goals down.

Thankfully, City's defensive options have now improved from Benjamin Mendy at left back and a 34 year old Fernandinho playing out of position at centre back.

Josko Gvardiol has started the season well and whilst he might well be outpaced by Traore, it's difficult to see him outmanoeuvred in the form he's in at the moment.

And City are now spoilt for choice for centre back options, with Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji and John Stones all playing well enough to stake a claim for starting regularly.

The backline will need to function as a unit to have the best possible chance of keeping a clean sheet but that strength in personnel in both positions since they were last hurt by the former Wolves duo will significantly increase City's chance of keeping them quiet.

The midfield battle without key men

City and Fulham have one thing in common - which is thriving without their key defensive midfielder from last season.

Rodri for City and Joao Palhinha for Fulham were crucial for their respective sides, both for helping their team tick in possession and for being the first line of defence in stopping transitions.

But losing them this season (in Rodri's case to an ACL injury, in Palhinha's case permanently to Bayern Munich for approximately £44.5 million this summer) hasn't stunted their good early season form, with City second in the Premier League table and Fulham just three points behind them in sixth.

The likes of Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan have really stepped up their game for City, with Kovacic starting the season well following Rodri's Euros injury and new signing Gundogan stepping in for the Croatian very well in midweek, scoring his first goal for the club since rejoining from Barcelona on a free transfer towards the end of the window.

Fulham may look to target City's "Rodri-less" midfield with physical players such as Sasa Lukic and Alex Iwobi, although they may lose out on a bit of flair and control if the likes Smith-Rowe and Andreas Pereira are either shifted out wide or dropped to the bench.

But without Palhinha, they're not able to execute this game plan as well as they would've done last season, which'd seem to give City the edge.

City's right hand side could win or lose them the game

How City's right hand side functions will be a huge variable determining whether City come away with a victory.

Kyle Walker hasn't been in the best of form recently but he improved against Newcastle, though I expect Lewis to start after his magnificent midweek performance against Slovan Bratislava.

He will probably be up against either Smith-Rowe or Iwobi, both of whom are physically strong, good ball carriers and have consistent end product.

As well as limiting the threat on this side, he'll need to get up - probably in central attacking positions - to help support City's right winger in their duel against Fulham left back Antonee Robinson, who has started the season in good form.

Savinho is probably the best winger suited to one vs one duels on City's right hand side, so if he starts and is firing he'll cause a problem for the Fulham backline with his pace, dribbling and creativity from the flank.

If whoever plays on the right struggles, however, there's every chance Fulham will dominate that flank and cause City some serious issues.

Can Stones overthrow the Dias-Akanji partnership?

As mentioned above, City are blessed with world class centre backs at this moment in time.

Dias and Akanji have started the season very well as a centre back partnership, keeping clean sheets against Chelsea and Inter so far this season.

But Stones has also started the season well, and may be needed to rotate in and out of both defence and defensive midfield to help City cope with the busy schedule and may even fight his way back into the first choice starting XI.

Gvardiol can also line up at centre back but plays at left back the vast majority of the time, and Nathan Ake will soon be returning to full fitness after picking up a muscle injury playing for the Netherlands in the September international break.

I expect Dias and Akanji to start again against Fulham after both were afforded a break to some extent against Bratislava, although if Stones starts after a solid 90 minutes against the Slovakian champions, it'd hardly be unjustified.

The 30 year old broke past Aymeric Laporte in the City pecking order four years ago to form a formidable partnership with Dias, so I wouldn't put it past Stones to do something similar again this year.