Manchester City close gap on United with easy win

Manchester City reduced their deficit at the top of the table to just 4 points, and the gap in goal difference to just 1. While their rivals, United have a game in hand, this will definitely be in the back of their heads when they visit White Hart Lane tomorrow. It was yet another flat performance from Fulham, who barely managed to muster a save off Hart, and were only bettered marginally by an equally unimpressive City.

As expected, it was an unchanged Manchester City side that took the pitch, with Sergio Aguero on the bench, and not in the starting lineup, which featured Tevez and Dzeko up front. For Fulham, who were playing in black, it was the familiar combination of Berbatov and Ruiz who were looking to make inroads into the City defence. It only took 95 seconds for City to take the lead, with a simple finish from David Silva. A poorly played square ball from Fulham was intercepted by James Milner, and played to Dzeko, who took a shot on target. While Schwarzer did manage to keep it out, his parry was not wide enough of goal, and allowed the arriving Silva to score across him, making it a daunting task for Fulham thereon.

David Silva nearly returned the favour for the Bosnian just past the quarter hour mark, when his cross found Dzeko in the box with a clear chance at a header, but the striker sent his attempt straight at Schwarzer, and that was the end of that move. Much of City’s play seemed to be centred around Silva and Dzeko going forward, and the Spaniard was brought down by Karagounis, who earned himself a yellow card. Just after 30 minutes, Fulham nearly scored with their first opportunity, but Zabaleta was on hand to keep City’s lead intact. A cross from the right wing made it all the way across the box to Steve Sidwell, who could only turn it goalwards with his shoulder, under pressure from Zabaleta, and managed to hit the outside of the post.

This gave the visitors some impetus, and it was they who were playing in the opposing half for much of the remainder of the first half, quite contrary to expectations. There wasn’t a cutting edge to their attack though, and at the break, the score remained as it had been since the second minute.

The start to the second half was much brighter from both teams, with Fulham hovering around City’s final third, while Tevez nearly doubled his team’s lead, having nicked the ball off Sidwell. The Fulham midfielder had the pace to get back and take the ball off Tevez’s toes with a sliding challenge though, and danger was averted. A little before the hour mark, Pablo Zabaleta was caught in the aftermath of a clearance by Hangeland, and in spite of coming back on the pitch subsequent to having his ankle looked at, he had to leave the pitch a couple of minutes later. Full backs seemed to be falling on both sides, as Kieran Richardson collapsed at left back a few minutes later with a pull or strain of some sort, and also had to be replaced.

Just as the game was descending into a lull, Silva had the City fans on their feet again, with a well taken solo effort. Running right through the Fulham defence with the ball at his feet, Silva dinked the ball over Schwarzer from a tight angle on the right, to make it three for the season. He nearly scored a third goal of the game just a minute later when he beat the offside trap, and found himself one-on-one with Schwarzer. However, his effort around the ‘keeper was just inches wide, and rolled along the pitch harmlessly for a goal kick.

Sergio Aguero could have had a goal on his return to action, but chose to pass the ball to Silva instead, who also chose not to shoot. His lay off was inch perfect for Dzeko, who sent his effort wide of goal, much to his own disappointment. There was an even more glaring miss from the Bosnian striker when he was put through on goal, and only had Schwarzer to beat, but let the ball ricochet off his foot, and fly over the cross bar. There were a couple other decent chances for Aguero, and one for Milner, which failed to find the back of the net, leaving the score as a 2 – 0 win for the home side.

Result: Manchester City (David Silva 2’, 69’) 2 – 0 Fulham