For Pep Guardiola, landmarks were brought up in familiar fashion. This was his 700th game as a manager and his 250th in charge of Manchester City. Victory was the 507th of his career and the 179th with his current club respectively. In the context of a manager who has a win percentage in excess of 70 for each of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City, a 2-0 triumph over Fulham scarcely stands out.
Yet the scoreline concealed the scale of City’s superiority on an afternoon illuminated by their goalscorers. They also generated the right sort of statistics.
Raheem Sterling’s early opener was City’s 100th goal of 2020, Kevin de Bruyne’s penalty their 400th in the Premier League under Guardiola. Each deserved his reward.
Each played a pivotal part in the other’s goal. Defensive as Fulham were, they never got to grips with either as the relentless Sterling recaptured his spark. De Bruyne’s dominance feels routine, but was brilliant nonetheless. “We know the quality from Kevin in the goals and assists,” Guardiola said. “He's so important for us. Just look at how he runs and fights as a modern footballer today.”
Riyad Mahrez and Joao Cancelo excelled among the supporting cast and Gabriel Jesus was unselfish, even if he rarely looked like scoring. "The finishing was wasteful,” added Guardiola. “We know we have to improve this.”
Profligacy was less costly because of a swift start. “It's important for the players up front to be scoring goals,” said Guardiola.
By Sterling’s standards, a run of six games without a goal constituted a drought. It was ended in the fifth minute, the winger racing on to De Bruyne’s through pass to guide a shot past Alphonse Areola. His wait was almost over even earlier, with Mahrez releasing Sterling and Areola making a fine save from the resulting shot.
Each was an indication that Fulham’s policy of packing the defence did not prevent City from finding holes in or behind it.
Their shape was officially a 5-3-2 but at times it looked like a 5-5-0, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek appearing a false nine. “Teams come here and get swept away,” said manager Scott Parker, “This is not a low for us. Man City are on a different level to us.”
That was apparent early on, with Cancelo’s confidence clear when he raided forward. He showed trickery and a turn of pace. When the Portuguese found Sterling in the box, he twisted and turned.
Joachim Andersen was fooled and then fouled him. Sterling has won more penalties than any other player in Premier League history but City and Fulham are teams with recent records of missing spot kicks. De Bruyne’s previous penalty, against Liverpool, went wide. There was no repeat as he sent Areola the wrong way.
Thereafter, the overworked goalkeeper kept the score down. “You need your keeper to have a big game when you come to City and he did,” added Parker.
Areola made a terrific flying stop to claw away Sterling’s volley, denied De Bruyne at his near post and then thwarted him again when Mahrez sent him sprinting clear.
The Algerian got a hat-trick last week and the Belgian could have had one seven days later. He rattled the bar with a rising shot while, when he turned supplier, Ruben Dias sliced a volley wide.
Meanwhile, the closest Fulham came to a goal was via John Stones, who failed to notice Ederson had come off his line, directed a pass back past his goalkeeper and was relieved to see it roll past the post. So Guardiola could savour a shutout. “Four games, four clean sheets,” he added. “It's so important for us to maintain this solidity.”
