MAN CITY 2, FULHAM 0
Manchester City may have made an indifferent start to the season by their high standards but victory against Fulham lifted them to fourth place in the Premier League.
Goals from Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne in the opening 26 minutes earned City a win that left them only three points off top in this hard-to-predict season.
City had kicked off in 11th place with 15 points after their opening nine fixtures, their lowest return since 2008-09.
But City were never in doubt as, once 2-0 ahead, they knew they had the game won and managed the remainder superbly.
And they would have won by more but for a man-of-the-match display from Cottagers’ goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, the French international who has been loaned from Paris St Germain.
Indeed, Fulham managed a miserly one on-target goal attempt and that was easily dealt with by goalkeeper Ederson as City made it 10 straight wins against Fulham.
There was never any chance of City not extending their unbeaten home record to 40 Premier League games against promoted opposition while the Cottagers have not lost 27 of their last 29 games against the established top-six teams.
Fulham had gone into the game high in confidence following their win at high-flying Leicester City five days earlier.
Embed from Getty ImagesCity manager Pep Guardiola, marking his 700th match in management, said: “We struggled at the beginning of the season for many reasons. Now four games, four clean sheets. It’s so important for us to maintain this solidity.
“The finishing was wasteful. We know we have to improve this, but it’s important to keep creating the chances. In the last 20 minutes we lost too many simple balls, which is a problem. We have to do the simple things better. That is the next step.
“I see more positives in the last three or four games than the opposite.
“I am more than happy with the performances against Porto and Fulham and the chances created.
“We are creating enough chances. We will improve and we did enough to win the game.”
With Champions League qualification already secured, Guardiola added the focus now is the Premier League and their efforts to win the title.
Fulham manager Scott Parker said: “If you lose matches, you’re obviously disappointed. I see a team that had some fight. I really liked what we were about in the second half. There’s no shame in losing to a quality side. I asked for spirit and personality and I thought we had that.
“The first half was tough. We changed it in the second half to try to get the ball in the right areas.
“The performances this week will stand us in very good stead. The first few games we weren’t in the contest and since then we’ve been right in them. Today was another big performance. We’ll keep building.”
Guardiola reverted back to a starting line up more similar to that which beat Burnley 5-0 last weekend, which was followed by a goalless draw at Porto in the Champions League.
There were, though, two changes from last weekend’s side with Joao Cancelo coming in for Kyle Walker at right-back and Sterling starting in attack in place of Ferran Torres.
Riyad Mahrez, who scored a hat-trick against the Clarets, started as did De Bruyne, who also excelled in that game.
Unsurprisingly, Fulham were unchanged from the side that beat Leicester 2-1 on Monday.
That meant the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic and Tom Cairney remained on the bench.
Sterling made the breakthrough in the fifth minute after Fulham failed to heed an earlier warning when he was released by Mahrez but Areola made an important block.
This time De Bruyne provided the assist, his 14th of 2020 in the Premier League, with a slide-rule pass to release Sterling who slotted home a low shot for his sixth goal of the season.
De Bruyne then forced a decent save from Areola as City were carving open the visiting defence with an uncomfortable ease for Cottagers’ manager Scott Parker.
City doubled their advantage in the 26th minute through a De Bruyne penalty after Sterling was tripped by Joachim Andersen, VAR confirming the spot kick which brought about only his second goal of the season.
De Bruyne, who had missed his last spot kick, made no mistake with an emphatic finish, the 400th Premier League goal of Guardiola’s reign at City.
Fulham had a chance to halve the deficit after John Stones’ wayward back pass flew past advancing goalkeeper Ederson but to the relief of everybody in the City camp it was a couple of yards wide.
Sterling was at his imperious best with a volley from Mahrez’ chip forcing a fine flying save from Areola.
City came close to a third soon after the restart when Gabriel Jesus cut the ball back to De Bruyne whose shot struck the crossbar.
De Bruyne had another great chance after being put clear by Mahrez’ diagonal pass, but Areola made another great block.
Fulham had their first on-target goal attempt with 14 minutes left, but Ivan Cavaleiro’s shot did not unduly trouble Ederson.
But it was a case of City, who were rarely troubled, running down the clock for a comfortable victory.