Many motifs of the modern Manchester City were there. Noel Gallagher grinning, fans doing the Poznan and Pep Guardiola being avant garde by wearing a thick fisherman’s jumper when it was 23 degrees. Supporters singing about being top of the league. The league table shifting, at the season’s business end, with City’s name back in the No1 position.
This was not a game that suggested Guardiola’s trophy guzzlers are going to do anything other than close out another title race and become English champions for a record fourth consecutive time. They were merciless and they were brilliant in taking Fulham apart. Guardiola had worried the pitch would not be sufficiently manicured for his team to unfurl their football, but that was kicked into the long grass.
Indeed the damage to Fulham — and Arsenal’s goal difference advantage — should have been even greater, but Erling Haaland’s radar seemed locked on to some random position over the Thames, instead of Bernd Leno’s goal. And so they only scored four (is there another team who you would write about “only” scoring four?) but that was enough, because of the goal difference, to raise the prospect that City may not even have to win their remaining two games.
In lieu of Haaland, who scooped his best chance into the stands while Guardiola watched with head in hands, City’s goal machine turned out to be their left back, Josko Gvardiol. His lovely run-and-finish established City’s control early on and, after Phil Foden’s opportunistic excellence made it 2-0, Gvardiol made the game safe in the 71st minute by converting in almost poacher style.
Kevin De Bruyne played a short corner to Bernardo Silva, who spun a cross to the back post, where Gvardiol stretched and squeezed the ball past a dithering Leno with the outside of his foot. His right one. This left-footed defender averaged one right-footed goal every 145 games before joining City, and averages better than one every ten games since.
Did Guardiola expect him to become the lethal, ambidextrous scorer? “No, [just] a few headers from set pieces,” Guardiola said, smiling.
Five minutes into stoppage time it seemed Gvardiol might even get a hat-trick. Issa Diop fouled Julian Álvarez with a tackle whose clumsiness epitomised his performance and City had a penalty. There were discussions over Gvardiol taking it but ruthlessness prevailed and Álvarez dispatched the kick.
When Gvardiol arrived at City last summer, it was as Europe’s best young left-sided centre back. Nobody except Guardiola could have reimagined him as a marauding wide attacker with a lethal right peg. Even if City grinding to titles is the most familiar sight in football, along the way their coach always shows us something new.
He always chases perfection too. “Second half he didn’t play well. He has to be more tight,” Guardiola said of Gvardiol. Though there was no quibbling with the excellence of the 22-year-old’s 13th-minute opener.
Foden played to Nathan Aké, who spread to Gvardiol and Gvardiol powered infield from the left wing, finding De Bruyne inside and continuing into Fulham’s area. With the most gorgeous touch, De Bruyne turned the ball round the corner, dinking it with just the right weight so it dropped at Gvardiol’s feet without him breaking stride. Gvardiol cut inside the wooden Diop and calmly passed the ball home. A simple yet classy execution.
Fulham had started well, quick and brave in their passing, looking to release Antonee Robinson wide and utilise the heft of Rodrigo Muniz. City’s discomfort showed when Ruben Dias knocked a simple pass clean out of play. But the early goal flipped the dynamics. Marco Silva’s team side are better suited to counterattacks than chasing a game and almost immediately City had a chance for 2-0.
After an admittedly horrible back-pass from Calvin Bassey, Leno made a weird attempt to clear with his knee and De Bruyne retrieved, chipping to Bernardo Silva, who headed across to Erling Haaland, but Haaland got under the ball and sprayed it into the stand.
Suddenly City were moving, with finely angled passes, through gaps in Fulham’s defences. Palhinha was like a lone, angry bouncer trying to stop a whole crowd getting in. Occasionally he whacked someone but it made no difference.
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After another Gvardiol incursion, De Bruyne played back to Bernardo Silva but he curled his shot into Leno’s hands and Foden did similar after cutting inside. When the half finished with Manuel Akanji somehow spooning the ball over an open goal from five yards out you wondered if City might just regret their profligacy.
That question loomed larger when, at the beginning of the second period, Leno saved from Bernardo Silva at close range and Fulham’s substitute Adama Traoré troubled Gvardiol, crossing for Muniz to almost beat Ederson with a clever flick.
But then came Foden. This goal encapsulated City’s relentlessness. Kyle Walker, a replacement for Aké, who hurt his foot, played up to Silva and as Robinson jumped in, the Portuguese spun away. On the edge of the box he was abruptly halted by Palhinha’s thunderous sliding tackle.
For a beat other players stopped as Bernardo rolled across the grass, flipped over by the challenge, but not Foden, who seized the loose ball and stroked a pinpoint shot past Leno. By the end, the jubilant travelling supporters seemed to taunt the whole league by singing “boring, boring City”.
However, even if their title-winning has long lost its novelty, so many things about City are original. Like their manager’s knitwear on a hot day. “I used this outfit many times, so we keep it as it is. Even if it is 45 degrees,” Guardiola explained.
Fulham (4-2-3-1): B Leno 7 — T Castagne 4, I Diop 4, C Bassey 6, A Robinson 6 — A Iwobi 6, Palhinha 7 — B Decordova-Reid 5 (T Cairney 46min), A Pereira 6 (H Wilson 74), Willian 6 (A Traoré 46) — R Muniz 6 (A Broja 67). Booked Robinson. Sent off Diop.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Ederson 7 — M Akanji 7, R Dias 6, N Aké 5 (K Walker 22), J Gvardiol 9 — M Kovacic 7 (R Lewis 82), Rodri 7 — B Silva 8, K De Bruyne 8 (J Doku 75), P Foden 8 (O Bobb 82) — E Haaland 4 (J Álvarez 82).
