Man City won thanks to goals from Jeremy Doku late in the game and a brace from Mateo Kovacic.
Manchester City defeated Fulham 3-2 in a hard-fought match to get back to winning ways in the Premier League after two straight draws.
Except Phil Foden replacing Kyle Walker, Pep Guardiola’s team was the same as it was at St. James’ Park following the team’s easy midweek triumph over Slovan Bratislava.
For the first time in the league this season, City’s number 47 got off to a bright start, setting up Erling Haaland for two good looks at goal, one of which went just wide.
Ilkay Gundogan’s attempt for the hosts also went close, going wide, and in the 25th minute, the German headed wide from a lovely cross from Bernardo Silva.
But Fulham was the team that scored the first goal. The former Manchester United midfielder simply slipped past Manuel Akanji and stroked the ball past Ederson to take advantage of some shoddy City defence. That goal kept City’s unfavourable streak of falling behind in all of their home league games this year, a trend Guardiola will try to break.
If Adama Traore had been more clinical, it could have been more, but twice he missed opportunities to convert risky Fulham breakaways.
Six minutes after Pereira’s first goal, City equalised, causing Marco Silva’s team to rue those wasted chances. Mateo Kovacic pounced on a clearing header from a corner and sent a shot on goal that managed to elude Bernd Leno in the away goal after taking a significant deflection off Joachim Anderen.
Even though Josko Gvardiol and Bernardo Silva came near late in the first half, it was the score at the interval.
After the break, City seized the lead in under two minutes thanks to another important goal from Kovacic. While his first goal was partially due to pure luck, his second goal was expertly finished when he used his left hand to control Silva’s pass and his right hand to transfer the ball into the net.
In a closer contest than the first, Foden’s shot was the only opportunity until the closing moments. Ederson stopped Traore from another quick Fulham attack when the Spaniard dribbled past Walker but shot straight at the City keeper. Once more, the players were grateful to their goalie.
With eight minutes remaining, Jeremy Doku appeared to have settled the game, just as jitters were starting to show inside the Etihad. The forward from Belgium grabbed hold of a long ball that was played upfield, made a cut inside, and unleashed a thunderous shot that flew past Leno.
Rodrigo Muniz managed to elude John Stones in the penalty area and blast past Ederson, but Fulham made sure it wasn’t the easy conclusion City had planned for. It was the final opportunity in a thrilling match that saw the victors hang on for a 3-2 victory.