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This match was in the middle of a stoppage time when Ederson was booked for time wasting, which would no doubt provoke a few wry smiles at Arsenal given the outcry from Manchester City players over the perceived black magic tactics of their title rivals at the Etihad Stadium a fortnight ago. .
Moments later, Rico Lewis played the ball down the right channel and was happy to buy a foul, which was celebrated vigorously by the City fans and their relieved manager Pep Guardiola. Rodrigo Muniz’s late goal had sparked a frantic finish, with the City manager crediting substitute Jérémy Doku for scoring a third and what would prove the winning goal.
To suggest that Fulham gave City a hard time would hardly do justice to the problems Marco Silva’s audacity has caused the Premier League champions.
On the one hand they kept Erling Haaland extremely quiet, on the other they exposed City’s fault lines without midfield sentinel Rodri by transitioning with pace and precision and running regularly in behind.
The fact that they lost a game they truly deserved to win was ultimately down to chronic waste: Adama Traoré squandered three golden chances, Josko Gvardiol produced a superb block to deny Raúl Jiménez and a few other inviting openings wasted by poor decision making. .
Make no mistake, a draw – let alone a win – could have flattered City. Guardiola’s frustration showed throughout the afternoon when his team turned the ball over too easily and were slow to engage the opponent or the ball and close down space as Fulham broke time and time again. times at high speed.
Rodri will not kick the ball again this season and Guardiola’s challenge going forward will be to find a way to minimize the greater damage inflicted by the absence of his team’s conductor and most influential player. The Spanish midfielder was absent in the 1-1 draw against Newcastle last weekend, but his absence was even more pronounced here and collectively seemed to have a destabilizing effect on the City team.
Ilkay Gundogan was poor, Bernardo Silva disappointing, Phil Foden not bad but not his usual electric self either. Lewis did quite well, especially in the second half, and Mateo Kovacic scored twice to show another side of his game, with the Croatian devoting his goals to his pregnant wife and their unborn child. But City found things difficult and were indebted to their goalkeeper Ederson on the day. “Difficult? Nooo! It’s so easy,” Guardiola said sarcastically, after acknowledging that his team had participated in a real match. “There are actions that we can defend better, but little by little we will improve. “
When Jack Grealish gave the ball away on the half-hour mark, sparking a Fulham counterattack that City failed to thwart and ended with Traore shooting over the bar at eight meters, Silva’s team should have already been a few goals ahead. .
Ahead thanks to Andreas Pereira’s close range goal, 3-0 would have been a long way off even for City at this stage. But two minutes after Traore spurned that chance, having been denied one-on-one by Ederson – as he would also be in the second half – City were level. You simply can’t waste openings like that at the Etihad, where City last lost in the league almost two years ago. It was five years to the day since Traore last scored twice at the Etihad in a 2-0 Wolves win, but the Spaniard was unable to display the same ruthlessness in front of the goal this time. Nonetheless, Guardiola was full of praise for Traore, describing him as “unstoppable”. “No one can control it,” the city manager said.
Silva couldn’t have organized his team better. Calvin Bassey and Joachim Andersen kept Haaland on a tight leash and the midfielder up front cut off space allowing City to feed their prolific number 9. They circulated the ball well in possession after recovering from the first 10 minutes botched moves that frustrated Silva. And they used all their myriad elements to good effect to make a clean transition: the linking play of Jiménez and Pereira, the pace of Traoré and Alex Iwobi and the delivery of Antonee Robinson from left back.
“Looking at the performance, the players executed the plan very well, but with the chances we created and comparing with City, we deserved more from the match, but that’s football,” Silva said. “We had four clear chances to score more.”
Fulham should have taken the lead in the 17th minute when Traore missed the first of his three big chances. Jiménez released him with a super through ball with the outside of his right foot. Lewis appeared to have faced the danger, but Traore got the better of the City player to shoot straight at Ederson one-on-one. Jiménez set up Pereira’s goal with a delightful backheel after Robinson’s cross had caused panic, then came Traoré’s second big miss in the 30th minute.
The city exploited it. Gundogan’s corner was not cleared, the ball bouncing off Traore into the path of Kovacic, whose shot deflected off Andersen. Silva was particularly dismayed that Fulham had conceded so soon after the restart. Bernardo cushioned Foden’s cross on his chest and laid the ball back to Kovacic, who slotted past Sander Berge before winning a sumptuous finish. This did not deter Fulham, however.
Another break saw Traore outpace Kyle Walker in terms of pace, but once again the Fulham striker’s finishing was lacking, with Ederson making another crucial save. Gvardiol then made a superb block to push back Jiménez.
City’s third was soft from Fulham’s point of view, Timothy Castagne cutting back on Doku and allowing the Belgian winger to fire a shot beyond Bernd Leno. It was also good work for City, as Muniz scored a late goal, setting up this nervy finale.
