Man City v Fulham preview: Guardiola's side aim to pile on pressure
A win here to extend their current four-match unbeaten run (W3, D1) would put them back on top, at least overnight, and put pressure on the Londoners.
However, star striker Erling Haaland (22) remains a possible absentee so Julián Álvarez’s performance against Sevilla will have heartened Man City fans, who’ll want to see their side make it 15 consecutive home wins in all competitions – whoever starts upfront.
As each of their last four home PL games (W4) saw the Citizens ahead by the 25th minute, they’ll also expect a fast start.
Fulham boss Marco Silva described his side’s 0-0 draw with Everton last weekend as a “really unfair result” after he watched his team fail to convert any of their 24 goal attempts.
Despite that frustrating display, he’s so far translated Championship-winning form into making them a competitive PL outfit, now sitting in a very creditable seventh place (W5, D4, L4).
They’ll likely not have many chances here though, where they’ve lost their last eight visits, only scoring once in the process.
However, Fulham should back themselves to cause a nuisance after netting in each of their last five league away games (W2, L3), but the bigger issue is leaking goals at the other end – they conceded an average of 2.2 goals per game during that sequence.
Players to watch: No PL player has contributed to more goals this calendar year than Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne (31) (16G, 24A) and he scored and assisted before half-time in the last league H2H here.
Fulham’s Willian (34), who’s now made more PL appearances than any other Brazilian (265), has two league strikes against City, both arriving after half-time.
Hot stat: Only Arsenal share Man City’s perfect record (W6) in home PL matches when starting as favourites this term.
