Match Report: Manchester City Edge Out Fulham
Yesterday at 04:00 PM
Blues Win Despite Nervy Finish
Manchester City crept to victory over a determined Fulham to record their first Premier League win without the injured Rodri. A brace by Mateo Kovacic and a brilliant goal by Jeremy Doku was enough to secure the points after Fulham had taken the lead, then threatened to fight back to prevent the three points from going to City.
It was the last match before the international break and the Blues needed the win to keep pace with leaders Liverpool, who had won earlier in the day at Crystal Palace. And with Arsenal defeating Southampton at the Emirates Stadium, it was vital that City emulated the results of their rivals.
But the Blues have seemed to struggle at home this season in the Premier League, failing to keep a clean sheet in any of their matches so far and being behind at one point in every game. Ipswich and Brentford both took surprise early leads, while Arsenal came from behind to lead just a couple of weeks ago.
And it was exactly the same when Fulham arrived at the Etihad Stadium, although it did take them 26 minutes to do it. The visitors had matched City up to that point, but there seemed to be little danger as Raul Jimenez collected the ball inside the area. Two City players were around him, but Jimenez pulled off a delightful back-heeled flick into the middle towards Andreas Pereira, who was lurking between Manuel Akanji and Rico Lewis. Neither recognised the threat and Pereira poked home to put Fulham in front.
Fulham's tails were up and Adama Traore, the scourge of City five years ago, almost haunted the club again. Before Pereira's goal, Traore missed a glorious chance to give Fulham the lead with Ederson making a great save. Then the striker had the chance to make it 2-0 but skied his shot over the bar when it was easier to hit the target.
The question was, would City make Traore, and Fulham, pay for those missed chances. The answer was a definite yes and it took them just six minutes to get back on level terms. A corner on the City left was headed down and Kovacic took up the role of Rodri and fired into the top corner, the ball taking a slight deflection along the way.
His second came just two minutes after the restart to put the Blues in front. Bernardo Silva took Phil Foden's cross superbly on his chest and teed up Kovacic, whose first touch made space for him to fire into the bottom corner.
Despite going in front, there was no way of telling how the match would end. Fulham were still very much in the game and were pushing City to the limit. And, when Traore went toe-to-toe and even beat Kyle Walker for pace, most of the ground thought Fulham would be level, before Ederson again pulled off another great save,
Traore will have gone home wondering how he failed to score and he was made to pay again when Doku added a third with eight minutes remaining. Lewis charged forward and played the ball left to Doku, then drew the defender aside and the Belgian ran into space and rifled the ball into the top corner.
That should have been the points safe but Fulham had other ideas. With two minutes left, Rodrigo Muniz was left in space inside the area and he had time to turn and fire home to set up a nervy finish for the Blues.
City ran down the clock and Ederson was booked for timewasting, but City held on for a precious three points.
Final Score: Manchester City 3-2 Fulham
