City fight hard to secure the 3 points at Home to Fulham
Manchester City returned to the Etihad Stadium this weekend after their dominant away trip in the newly formatted Champions League against Slovakian team Slovan Bratislava where the Premier League champions managed a comfortable 4-0 victory. Saturday saw City come against an impressive Fulham team this season, winning their last two premier league matches against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest placing themselves in the top half of the table only six games into the season.
Manchester City’s starting XI: Ederson (GK), Gvardiol, Dias, Akanji, Lewis, Kovacic, Gundogan, Foden, Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland.
Fulham’s starting XI: Leno (GK), Robinson, Bassey, Andersen, Tete, Iwobi, Traore, Lukic, Berge, Pereira, Jimenez.
The game saw Manchester City’s Phil Foden receive his first start of the season after playing in City’s midweek fixture where the midfielder scored as well as assisting another one of City’s academy graduates in James McAtee. Fulham manager, Marco Silva, decided to make only one change for the game, replacing record transfer fee attacker Emile Smith-Rowe for defensive Midfielder and summer signing Sander Berge. The Fulham boss also tinkered with the formation of the team, moving Alex Iwobi to right wing back to create a back five. Raul Jimenez had been in some serious form for Fulham before this game, being chosen over Rodrigo Muniz and scoring in his three Premier League appearances after starting from the bench in the first three games of the season.
Fulham started the match very well having many opportunities in and around Manchester City’s box, Fulham attacker Adama Traore collected an XG of 1.29 and missed 3 big chances, two coming in the first half. City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan missed an excellent chance just 3 minutes into the game which should have put the citizens ahead early on and could have swung the game in a completely different direction. After Traore’s early miss in the 17th minute it was only ten minutes later that Fulham stunned the Etihad Stadium and produced a magical goal that sent them into the lead and the away fans into a frenzy. Alex Iwobi with a well-executed lofted pass into Raul Jimenez who managed to deliver a beautiful back heel ball over the two Manchester City defenders which fell nicely for ex Manchester United player Andreas Pereira who had nothing else to do but score and put Fulham ahead. Minutes later a counterattack by Fulham should have ended with a goal as Iwobi created a great chance to extend their lead, however Adama Traore couldn’t find the target and sent the ball over the bar instead. After these chances it didn’t take long before City found an equaliser, a corner ball put into the danger area of the penalty spot founded its way to Mateo Kovacic’s path who had nothing else in his mind but to find the target, with help from a deflection however the Croatian and the city fans in the ground wouldn't of cared as City were back on level terms going into the halftime break.
At the beginning of the second half Manchester City seemed to have found their stride again in this game as Mateo Kovacic once again put his name onto the scoresheet, putting them ahead for the first time in this game in the 47th minute. A much better finish was granted this time from outside the box, perfectly placed into the bottom left corner too far and quick for Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno to reach. Adama Traore was very much a big story point in this match as once again he missed an excellent chance in the second half, fighting and beating, substituted on, Kyle Walker for pace he once again couldn’t find the back of the net, instead making it very easy for goalkeeper Ederson and hitting the ball right at the City keeper.
Marco Silva made some excellent substitutions in the second half, bringing on Emile Smith-Rowe and Tom Cairney to add extra legs into the midfield and some creativity with Smith Rowe. Fulham had the edge and momentum in the second period of the second half through these players. However, Fulham couldn't convert this momentum into goals, and they paid the price as City winger Jeremy Doku scored an incredible goal from outside the box with such power and curve that Leno had no chance in goal to stop it bringing the scoreline to 3-1 and giving City a much better platform to see out the victory. The third girl was needed as City were not at their best once again in this game and Fulham just before the 90-minute mark found a second goal through Muniz which created a nervy atmosphere from then till the full time whistle however City managed to hang on and the 3 points were theirs.
Manchester City haven’t been at their best in the last three Premier League games raising eyebrows from some pundits and definitely from managers such as Mikel Arteta and even Arne Slot who could see this season being their year to capitalise on the Premier League title. Marco Silva after the game praised the players performance, ‘The players understood the plan, they executed really well’ ‘Overall the performance was really good, unfortunately weren’t ruthless enough to get a result because the players they deserve’. Fulham can go into the international break happy having a positive start to the season placing them in 8 th so far with Aston Villa at home as their next game after the break.
Image from @mancity on Instagram
