By Jamie Jackson, at the Ettihad, and Louise Taylor, at the Stadium of Light
Manchester City’s week is moving along sweetly, this win on Wednesday night closing the gap to three points to Arsenal, who travel to Brentford today.
On Sunday, they defeated Liverpool at Anfield, on Wednesday they downed Fulham at home to reel off a 20th consecutive victory against them.
The rosiest moment for the title challengers was Erling Haaland’s 39th‑minute strike, a first in the competition from open play in nine games, though more concerning was his removal at the break, when City led 3-0.
“Niggles,” Pep Guardiola said. “Fatigue. He said: ‘I don’t feel comfortable.’ With 3-0 and a lot of games and having Omar [Marmoush] – common sense to take him off.”
The clean sheet raises City’s goal difference to +30, two behind Arsenal. Who knows: the metric may prove the decider when the crown is handed out in May.
Guardiola, though, refused to embrace City being three points behind the Gunners.
“We are not three points before they play Brentford, after that we’ll see,” he said. “It’s more important how we can be more consistent over 90 minutes.
“But a really good performance, one of the best. After Anfield it is important – these emotional games – the next one is always tricky.”
You had to go back to April 2009 for the last time Fulham defeated City when a Clint Dempsey double helped them to secure a 3-1 win at the Ettihad.
Since then, the aggregate score was 53‑21 to the home team – a terrible statistic for the visitors that would plunge further.
How Match Transpired
Phil Foden, back in the league XI for the first time in five games, had a volley from outside the area deflected. Then, from inside, saw a shot saved by Bernd Leno.
In continual rain, Fulham coach Marco Silva bemoaned Harry Wilson going backwards along the right, but a press featuring Antoine Semenyo, Haaland, Nico O’Reilly, Foden and Rodri meant he had scant other choice.
Semenyo opened the scoring when Rodri sprayed a pass left to Matheus Nunes, he crossed, and Haaland leaped and missed, which caused Sander Berge to head towards his goal, where the forward struck for a fifth in eighth appearances.
Next came Kenny Tete pulling Semenyo’s hair as City crowded Fulham’s area.
“I went to attack the corner and I just felt a tug on my hair, I let the referee know,” Semenyo said. “They checked it and said there wasn’t enough.”
Fulham’s concession of O’Reilly’s second came when Haaland stretched to feed him near halfway and was taken down by Joachim Andersen. O’Reilly found Semenyo, carried on along the left, took the return and defeated Leno. City celebrated and Andersen was booked by Paul Tierney for the challenge.
Fulham needed to steady themselves, but failed as Haaland scored. Receiving from Foden near the D, a touch tipped the ball on to his left and he drilled beyond Leno.
After a misplaced Marc Guéhi header allowed Wilson to feed Emile Smith Rowe, who narrowly missed, Guardiola ended the period jumping at his side’s laxness.
In the reverse, helter-skelter fixture, City were 4-1 up by 48 minutes and ended hanging on for a 5-4 win.
Could Fulham engineer something similar? No, was the answer despite there being no Haaland to contend with for the second half.
Substitutions
City popped the ball about but Guardiola was no happier, so Tijjani Reijnders and Abdukodir Khusanov entered for Bernardo Silva and Nunes, as Silva made a triple change – Kevin, Rodrigo Muniz and Josh King for Samuel Chukwueze, Smith Rowe and Raul Jiménez.
When Rodri, Guéhi and Khusanov combined near their goal suddenly City were upfield and Foden could release Semenyo: the move faltered but the flow here was City in their best mode.
How The Match Petered Out
A Foden challenge on Nigerian Calvin Bassey had him booked as City sought to slow the contest and protect the lead. Helpful, too, was a Wilson corner – a rarity for Fulham – he overhit all the way over to the left.
By 70 minutes Rayan Cherki and Nico González were involved, as Guardiola freshened the legs more – Rodri and Foden making way – this after Donnarumma repelled, low, a Muniz effort.
As the game petered out, Donnarumma tipped over from King, but with 12 games left City are where Guardiola wants them: in the hunt.
Silva said: “Not good enough from us, we were not at the level and the demands of a game like this one. We didn’t play in the way we are capable of playing.”
They were, in fact, very far off what was required.
Virgil van Dijk Rises To Occasion As Liverpool End Sunderland Record
Arne Slot does not believe his job security hinges on Liverpool securing Champions League qualification this spring but the Dutchman would much prefer not to put that particular notion to the test.
On this evidence there seems a decent chance last season’s title winning manager will not have to.
Liverpool Very Close To 4th, 5th Teams On Log
In finally ending Sunderland’s proud unbeaten home record in the Premier League, sixth placed Liverpool left themselves only three points adrift Manchester United and two behind Chelsea.
Sunderland coach Régis Le Bris’s intelligent and well organised side did not surrender lightly but, with the excellent Florian Wirtz continuing to go from strength to strength in the No 10 role, Liverpool looked like champions and deserved to edge a match decided by Virgil van Dijk’s header from Mo Salah’s second-half corner.
The only downside for Slot was the nasty looking ankle injury sustained by his stand-in right-back, Wataru Endo.
Liverpool’s manager said it “did not look good” and he expects Endo to be “out for a long, long, time. It’s a serious one but how serious we don’t know. It will be assessed tomorrow (today).”
Slot A Happy Man Again, Fulham Coach Speaks
That cloud apart, his mood was distinctly upbeat. “Sunderland are a good team with a good manager and it’s difficult to play against them,” he said.
“But we controlled the second ball really well and from that we played some really good football. We were the better team. The mentality was excellent.”
Le Bris acknowledged Sunderland had “clearly felt Liverpool’s quality”. As he put it: “If you fix one problem against them, you find you have to manage another. It wasn’t easy for them to win here. We showed character and identity. We showed composure and we were brave. We tried but it wasn’t enough. We faced a monster. Liverpool are composed and they have this ability to combine in tight spaces.”
How The Match Went
Although Slot’s side dominated possession, it initially foundered in the face of a meticulously organised Sunderland defence.
Then, with around 30 minutes on the clock, Wirtz met a pass from the influential, apparently renascent Alex Mac Allister, took a steadying touch and decided to try his luck from the edge of the area.
While Robin Roefs did well to turn that one around a post, Sunderland’s goalkeeper was subsequently relieved to see a Wirtz shot rebound off the base of an upright after Andy Robertson’s cross bisected Le Bris’s backline.
With Wirtz in increasingly catalytic mood as he assumed centre stage and Salah, sporadically ruffling Reinildo, Le Bris had reason to look more than a little anxious at times.
Yet his team, too, had their moments. All kaleidoscopic positional interchanging going forward, Sunderland were being fully stretched yet remained very much in the game.
It was the sort of match where they particularly missed their injured captain Granit Xhaka. Enzo Le Fée had dropped back alongside Noah Sadiki to fill Xhaka’s place at the base of midfield and his superior reading of the game and off-the-ball positioning ensured his side were able to make a series of important interceptions as Wirtz demonstrated precisely why Slot was so very keen to sign him last summer.
Sunderland improved at the start of the second half but, still, they barely threatened Alisson’s goal and with the impressive Ibrahima Konaté winning his physical tussle with Brian Brobbey, a 25-yard off-target shot from Trai Hume was about the closest they came to scoring.
Tellingly, once Liverpool began weathering a home storm briefly as intense as the torrential rain that had cascaded down on Wearside all day, it took a vital block from Dan Ballard to deny Wirtz.
How Liverpool’s Goal Came About
A visiting goal was coming though. It arrived when Salah swung an excellent corner towards the far post and Van Dijk’s equally impressive header was helped on its inevitable trajectory into the back of the net by Habib Diarra.
A delay ensued as Endo, deputising for the suspended Dominik Szoboszlai and putting in a very decent shift, received lengthy treatment – and pain relief – on the pitch after turning an ankle in evidently agonising fashion. Eventually the Japan international was carried off on a stretcher and replaced by Joe Gomez.
It was a horrible way for Endo’s first Premier League start of the season to end but this most sodden of midwinter nights may yet come to be seen as a watershed in Liverpool’s hitherto troubled season.
With the crushing disappointment of last Sunday’s defeat against Manchester City temporarily forgotten, almost anything suddenly seemed possible for Wirtz and friends.
*PHOTO CAPTION: van Dirk (facing camera, arms raised) joyful after scoring Liverpool’s only goal, to down Sunderland.
