There is always at least one. Always a game, in October or November, when Manchester City lace their boots on the wrong feet. This felt like most of Pep Guardiola’s players tied pairs together and just left them tangled.
They stumbled, stumbled badly, but just about retained their balance. City have Ederson to thank for that, and definitely the profligate Adama Traore – who has haunted Guardiola on this ground before – and the roar on full time suggested relief. ‘Tough?’ Guardiola asked. ‘No. So easy.’ Easy to keep your sense of humour when the points are surprisingly safe.
It has been a curious oddity of Guardiola’s reign that these performances are thrown in around the same time of every season. Gone is the adrenaline of August, the back to school excitement, and once autumn hits, teams like Wolves (twice), Brentford, Leicester City and Crystal Palace have feasted on a City display that is susceptible to quick, counter attacking as a result of their own malaise in possession.
Fulham ought to have added themselves to that list. Traore was twice thwarted by Ederson when clean through, the Brazilian’s legs rescuing City on both occasions, and the Spain international scooped another presentable opportunity over the crossbar from eight yards, five years to the weekend since his late double gave Wolves a creditable victory at the Etihad Stadium.
Not this time, although City allowing substitute Rodrigo Muniz to put them within a goal moments before the end led to Ederson’s booked for timewasting. The actual yellow card dished out by Peter Bankes seemed a little harsh as the goalkeeper lined up a stoppage-time free kick and Guardiola acted with incredulity, cautioned himself for remonstrations aimed at the fourth official. Nevertheless, a few twitching eyebrows down at the Emirates, perhaps. The odd mutter of dark arts, maybe.
Manchester City needed a Mateo Kovacic double to see off a stubborn Fulham side
Fulham took a shock lead through former Man United man Andreas Pereira after a cheeky Raul Jimenez backheel
Something special was required to provide Guardiola the breathing room he so desired and the mercurial Jeremy Doku stepped up to take responsibility
Adama Traore had missed a string of good chances to put the champions away
City might well have used them to their advantage far more, to be honest, given the sight of Phil Foden quickly jogging off when they led 2-1 with only 12 minutes remaining. They didn’t manage this particularly well and three points is something of an escape. A sentiment washed over a rueful Marco Silva’s face during a lengthy debrief with Guardiola afterwards. Had Traore done his job from that left wing, when breaking clear in a way Fulham had drilled him, then this could have ended very differently. Guardiola admitted Traore is ‘unstoppable’ and ‘impossible to control’. Well, until right at the very last moment..
‘We have to be unhappy,’ the Fulham manager said. ‘That’s the feeling we all feel in the dressing room. The players stuck with the plan and executed it really well. We deserved more. To come here, score twice and have more clear opportunities to score. It gives us the feeling that we’re going in the right direction and we’re growing.’
Fulham ought to have been leading by the time Andreas Pereira ghosted behind Manuel Akanji to force home an extraordinary back flick by Raul Jimenez on 26 minutes and were left counting the cost of not taking the majority of their chances.
It allowed City to continue probing, equalising a couple of minutes after the half-hour through Mateo Kovacic when Ilkay Gundogan’s corner rattled about and the Croatian slammed past Bernd Leno via Joachim Andersen. An element of control had returned for Guardiola, who saw Kovacic whip in a second moments after the break from the edge of the box from Bernardo Silva’s cutback. Remarkably, that represented the first brace of Kovacic’s club career.
‘When Fulham defended with five, nobody can defend Kovacic,’ Guardiola said. ‘We used that weapon. Now opponents know that they cannot leave him alone.’
Aside from his goals, Kovacic tried to drive City on. He did so with abandon while also checking himself in the absence of Rodri. Yet to lay the blame for the erratic nature of City’s fragility in transitions purely on Rodri would be wrong. Guardiola has work to do on finding a formula that works in the central areas and a big name – be it Gundogan, Kovacic or a defender – will need to be the fall guy.
The fact that they have now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last nine league matches, equalling an unwanted club record set in 2015, is inescapable. But so too is that they are now only the fourth club in English history to reach a half-century of games in all competitions unbeaten. A strange one to conflate.
The latter is why the words ‘volem que et quedis’ hung off the South Stand before kick-off. We want you to stay in Catalan, a fan banner pleading with Guardiola to pen another new contract. Official communication of his next steps usual comes during the November international break and that is drawing ever closer.
Kovacic had given the Etihad side an equaliser in the first-half thanks to an assured finish
Rodrigo Muniz leathered the ball home from 15 yards out to provide a grandstand finish
Pep Guardiola’s frustration boiled over late on and the Spaniard received a booking
Truer tests of Fulham’s European ambitions lie ahead but the west London side remain in sixth
Meanwhile, City break their recent inertia and remain just a point behind Arne Slot’s Reds on 17 from seven matches
Things have changed over his time. City have generally gone back to more direct wingers – although both, Savinho and Jeremy Doku, were benched for this. When Doku was finally called for, he jinked inside and thundered with swerve beyond a helpless Leno with eight minutes left. Guardiola had sent for defensive reinforcement before that, with how substitute Kyle Walker found himself burnt for pace by Traore an eye-opener, and Silva noticed the late defensive mindset of the champions.
‘It’s not often you see City defending so deep like they did at the end – three central defenders, five at the back,’ Silva remarked. Even so, Muniz was given too much room to swivel and hammer past Ederson, leaving with City needing to run the clock down. Not often that happens.
