There were early goals aplenty in the PL today, and City can count themselves mightily unlucky that they didn’t get in on the act themselves.
Both İlkay Gündoğan and Erling Haaland went close in the opening stages, but it was Fulham who worked a gilt-edged opening.
Raúl Jiménez’s measured outside-of-the-boot pass freed Adama Traoré, but the legs of Ederson kept City on level terms.
However, that was only a temporary reprieve for the hosts, who were soon behind when a deft Jiménez flick teed up Andreas Pereira to volley Fulham ahead.
The South Londoners’ advantage should’ve become two almost straight after when a swift counter ended with Alex Iwobi laying the ball on a plate for Traoré, who could only lift his effort over the bar.
Marco Silva’s men were left to rue that miss a matter of seconds later when for all their easy-on-the-eye football, a classic smash-and-grab goal drew City level, as Mateo Kovačić’s thunderous effort from the edge of the area deflected in off Joachim Andersen.
Kovačić had only scored two PL goals for City prior to today, but he matched that tally here when inside two minutes of the restart, the Croatian guided into the corner from the edge of the area.
But in almost identical fashion to the first half, Fulham almost hit back when a hopeful ball in behind was latched onto by Traoré, who after resuming his duel with Ederson, was again thwarted by the legs of the Brazilian.
The Cottagers continued to probe and again came close when a last-ditch block denied Jiménez a goal in a fourth successive PL game.
Their chances of getting back into the game were seemingly extinguished, and in some style too, as Jérémy Doku stepped in off the left and unleashed an absolute rasper into the top-right corner beyond a desperate Bernd Leno dive.
Fulham handed themselves a late lifeline when Rodrigo Muniz swivelled in the area and found the top corner, but that was no more than a consolation, as City held on to stretch their unbeaten league run to 30 matches, while their competitive undefeated home run inside 90 minutes now stands at a whopping 50 games.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Mateo Kovačić (Manchester City)
