Fancy a bit of history? Under the floodlights of this storied old ground you were welcome to take your pick. The inevitable Erling Haaland smashed through the 100-goal barrier and a Premier League record. Phil Foden scored his second brace in four days. City raced to a 5-1 lead before an hour was even on the clock only for Fulham to come agonisingly close to parity by the end. All of it culminating in one of the highest-scoring matches in three decades of the Premier League. Not bad.
Full value for money was achieved before half-time as City imposed themselves on their hosts with ruthless timing. Haaland had come into the game on 99 Premier League goals, but had drawn a blank in his past two league matches. With just five minutes gone and bearing down on Bernd Leno, after being played in by Foden, it appeared the wait was swiftly over. But in the most unusual of occurrences, Haaland calmly wrapped a shot beyond the Fulham goalkeeper but watched stunned as the ball hit the post.
Was this omen good or bad for the Norwegian master? It quickly proved the former. Seventeen minutes in and after a spell of prolonged possession on the edge of the Fulham box, Jérémy Doku got in behind Kenny Tete and pulled back a cross. Fulham had enough men across the six-yard box, but a dummy from Tijjani Reijnders sold both centre-halves and Haaland reacted to punch the ball through a sprawling Leno and into the net.
A calm celebration followed, arms quietly aloft, but it was quite the achievement. Despite the two-game wait Haaland had become the fastest player to 100 goals in the Premier League and by some distance. Alan Shearer, the previous record holder, required 124 games to reach the milestone, Harry Kane 141. Haaland had done it in just 111.
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The travelling City fans, who were in good voice, belted out the name of their No 9 and Haaland soon produced another decisive moment for his team. With 37 minutes on the clock and Rúben Dias on the ball on the halfway line, Haaland did something unusual, dropping deep from his customary hunting ground of the 18-yard box and picking up possession. His move caught out his marker Joachim Andersen and Haaland made it worse, spinning past the Dane and prodding a pass forward into the opened space where Reijnders ran clear to scoop the ball over Leno and double the lead.
Two then became three when Leno opted to punch clear a corner he could have caught. The ball didn’t travel nearly far enough, dropping on the edge of the box and, worse, the left hand side of it. That’s where Phil Foden is to be found prowling and, hot on the heels of a brace against Leeds, the England man was in total control of matters as he took a touch out of his feet and bent a beautiful left-foot effort inside the far post.
The half still wasn’t over though and Fulham gave themselves a modicum of hope as Alex Iwobi stopped a City counter, played in Harry Wilson and the Welshman’s cross was converted sweetly by Emile Smith Rowe who looped a diving header over Gianluigi Donnarumma.
That hope endured the length of the half-time break, and another 120 seconds or so, before City once again pulled away. They scored their fourth in the 48th minute, a three-man break still enough to cut Fulham open with Doku’s cross finding Foden via Haaland’s back heel and the midfielder finishing calmly.
Six minutes after that and Doku got on the scoresheet himself, robbing Andersen on the edge of the box and firing home via a big deflection off Sander Berge. Just to keep the masters of the narrative on their toes, however, Fulham then went and promptly scored again themselves: the dependable Iwobi sidefooting home from the edge of the box after City failed to clear a Wilson cross.
It felt like a face-saving riposte in the moment, but Fulham’s fans immediately sensed the chance for more. Half-time substitute Samuel Chukwueze understood the brief and stepped up, scoring his first Premier League goals with a pair of fine strikes. The first was drilled home from the edge of the box but took the video assistant referee an age to confirm. The second came after Donnarumma had his own weak punch from a corner. Smashed low with his left foot Chukwueze sent the crowd into raptures.
Such a stirring brave endeavour, it was nearly an impossible mission accomplished when Josh King saw an effort cleared off the line with just seconds of added-time remaining. Such a brave performance may not have been enough in the end, but no one who was here will forget it.
In the evening’s other fixtures, Jack Grealish was the difference in Everton’s 1-0 away win to Bournemouth, while Cristian Romero rescued a draw at the death for Spurs against Newcastle, bagging a brace at St James’ Park to deny Eddie Howe’s side full points. – Guardian
