Pep’s relief but wasteful Fulham expose Man City fault lines

Adama Traore caused champions, who continue to look shaky in Rodri’s absence, manifold problems but poor finishing ruined away side’s day

This game was deep into stoppage time when Ederson was booked for time-wasting, which would doubtless cause a few wry smiles at Arsenal given the uproar from Manchester City players over their title rivals’ perceived dark-arts tactics at the Etihad Stadium a fortnight ago.
Moments later, Rico Lewis was running the ball down the right channel and happy to buy a foul, which was celebrated lustily by the City fans and their relieved manager Pep Guardiola. Rodrigo Muniz’s late goal had sparked a frantic finish, with the City manager grateful for substitute Jérémy Doku lashing home a third and what would prove the winning goal.
To suggest Fulham gave City a run for their money would scarcely do justice to the problems Marco Silva’s bold side caused the Premier League champions.
At one end they kept Erling Haaland extremely quiet, at the other they exposed City’s fault lines without midfield sentry Rodri by transitioning with pace and precision and routinely racing in behind.
That they lost a match they really deserved to win was ultimately down to chronic wastefulness: Adama Traore squandering three gilt-edged chances, Josko Gvardiol making a stunning block to deny Raúl Jiménez and a couple of other inviting openings thrown away by poor decision-making.
Make no mistake about it, a draw – let alone the win – might have flattered City. Guardiola’s frustration was writ large throughout an afternoon when his side turned over the ball too easily and were slow to engage the opponent or the ball and shut down the space as Fulham broke time and again at speed.
Rodri will not kick a ball again this season and Guardiola’s challenge going forward will be to find a way to minimise the wider damage inflicted by the absence of his team’s conductor and most influential player. The Spain midfielder was missed in the 1-1 draw with Newcastle last weekend but his absence was even more pronounced here and collectively seemed to have a destabilising effect on City’s team.
Ilkay Gundogan was poor, Bernardo Silva disappointing, Phil Foden not bad but not his usual electric self either. Lewis did fairly well, especially in the second half, and Mateo Kovacic scored twice to showcase another side of his game, the Croat dedicating his goals to his pregnant wife and their unborn child. But City found the going tough and were indebted to their goalkeeper Ederson on the day. “Tough? Noooo! So easy,” Guardiola said, sarcastically, after acknowledging his team had been in a real game. “There are actions we can defend better but step by step we will improve.”
When Jack Grealish gave the ball away on the half-hour mark, triggering a Fulham counter-attack City failed to thwart and which ended with Traore hitting over the bar from eight yards, Silva’s side should already have been a couple of goals to the good.
In front courtesy of Andreas Pereira’s close-range finish, 3-0 would have been a long way back, even for City at that stage. But within two minutes of Traore spurning that chance, having earlier been denied one on one by Ederson – as he would also be in the second period – City were level. You simply cannot waste openings like that at the Etihad, where City last lost in the league almost two years ago. It was five years to the weekend since Traore scored twice at the Etihad in a 2-0 win for Wolves but the Spaniard was unable to display the same ruthlessness in front of goal this time around. Nonetheless, Guardiola was full of praise for Traore, describing him as “unstoppable”. “Nobody can control him,” the City manager said.
Silva could not have set up his team much better. Calvin Bassey and Joachim Andersen kept Haaland on a tight leash and the midfield in front cut off the space for City to feed their prolific No9. They circulated the ball well in possession after recovering from a sloppy first 10 minutes that frustrated Silva. And they used all their myriad components to excellent effect to transition sharply: the link play of Jiménez and Pereira, the pace of Traore and Alex Iwobi and the delivery of Antonee Robinson from left-back.
“Looking at the performance the players executed the plan really well but with the chances we created and comparing with City we deserved more from the game but that is 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 ball from deep with the outside of his right foot. Lewis looked like he had dealt with the danger but Traore got the better of the City player only to shoot straight at Ederson one-on-one. Jiménez set up Pereira’s goal with a delicious back-heel after Robinson’s cross had bred panic and then came that second big Traore miss on 30 minutes.
City exploited it. Gundogan’s corner was not cleared, the ball bouncing off Traore into the path of Kovacic, whose shot deflected in off Andersen. Silva was particularly dismayed that Fulham conceded so soon after the restart. Bernardo cushioned Foden’s cross on his chest and laid the ball off to Kovacic, who shimmied past Sander Berge before sweeping home a sumptuous finish. It did little to deter Fulham though.
Another break saw Traore outstrip Kyle Walker for pace but again the Fulham forward’s finish was lacking, Ederson making another crucial save. Next Gvardiol made a superb block to deny Jiménez.
City’s third was soft from Fulham’s point of view, Timothy Castagne backing off Doku and allowing the Belgium winger to lash a shot beyond Bernd Leno. It was a good job for City, too, because Muniz pulled a goal back late on, setting up that nervy finale.