Key events
32 min: City finally venture into Fulham territory and the ball’s worked wide to Bernardo Silva on the right. Antonee Robinson eventually hacks the ball clear for Fulham but it goes straight back to City, who win a corner off Timothy Castagne.
30 min: City enjoy a sustained period of keep-ball without venturing out of their own half. Akanji, Dias, Walker and Gvardiol are getting plenty of touches as they hog the ball.
27 min: It’s Leno to the rescue for Fulham again, as he’s called upon to stop a rising Phil Foden drive from distance that was hit straight at him. After their very promising start, Fulham are now coughing up possession far too cheaply in dangerous areas.
25 min: Gvardiol pulls the ball back to Kevin De Bruyne on the edge of the Fulham penalty area and the Belgian tees up Bernardo Silva for a shot from distance. His effort is on target but Bernd Leno dives to his left and catches the ball. A bit of a Hollywood save, that’s one for the Fulham goalkeeper’s showreel.
23 min: Play resumes with Walker in at right-back for City and Akanji moving into the Ake-shaped hole in the heart of their defence.
21 min: Manchester City substitution: Nathan Ake has suffered a knock and is unable to run properly. He’s replaced by Kyle Walker as the players take a short drinks break. Pep Guardiola uses the interlude to give an impromptu and very animated team talk.
19 min: There were, in fact, 19 passes in the build-up to that opening goal, with Erling Haaland and Ederson the only City players who didn’t get involved.
18 min: Erling Haaland has just sent a volley high over the bar from distance, connecting with the bouncing ball after a mix-up between Bassey and Leno led to De Buyne heading it his way.
15 min: As Mike Tyson famously said, everyone has a plan until they get a punch in the mouth and Fulham have been left with a fat lip despite a very promising start. There were 14 or 15 passes in the build-up to that gooal but it was Gvardiol who played the starring role. The left back drove inside from the left playing a give-and-go with De Bruyne. As the Croatian made a curling run into the box to collect the return pass, he took out Diop with a terrific bit of control and then rolled a precise right-foot effort past Leno.
GOAL! Fulham 0-1 Man City (Gvardiol 13)
City lead! Ah well. Josko Gvardiol cuts in from the left, plays a lovely give-and-go with Kevin De Bruyne and rolls the ball past Bernd Leno and into the bottom corner after completely wrong-footing Fulham defender Issa Diop with a lovely first touch. That’s a wonderful goal.
12 min: Kevin De Bruyne tries to pick out Haaland with a ball to the edge of the Fulham penalty area but Calvin Bassey is on hand to intercept and play it back to his goalkeeper.
10 min: A hopeful ball from deep hoofed in the general direction of Fulham striker Rodrigo Muniz is headed back into the Fulham half by Ruben Dias.
9 min: Bobby Decordova-Reid snaps into a tackle in midfield and wins the ball for Fulham, who have had 59% of the possession so far.
8 min: Josko Gvardiol tries to canter down the left flank for City but is dispossessed by Timothy Casatagne, who plays the ball back to Leno again. Good defending.
7 min: Mateo Kovacic, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland combine through the middle for City as the visitors probe for an opening.
6 min: It’s been a bright start for Fulham, who are enjoying plenty of possession in these early stages.
4 min: Antonee Robinson takes a throw-in for Fulham, halfway inside the City half, chucking the ball back into his own half. It eventually ends up at the feet of Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who receives a backpass from Timothy Castagne.
2 min: Andreas Pereira runs on to a long ball into a pocket of space vacated by Manuel Akanji in the City right-back position and wins a corner for Fulham off Ruben Dias. The inswinger is cleared at the near post and Fulham recycle the ball. On this occasion, Pereira’s delivery into the box is headed clear by Erling Haaland.
Fulham v Manchester City is go …
1 min: Following the laying of wreaths and a minute’s applause for the late Fulham striker Viv Busby, Alex Iwobi gets the ball rolling for the home side.
Not long now: Referee Anthony Taylor and his team of match officials lead out both sets of players on a beautifully sunny day beside the Thames. The pitch has been watered and looks perfect and the players of Manchester City, who have been waiting outside their dressing-room for almost 10 minutes, have the collective game face on. Can Fulham throw a spanner in the works of Pep’s relentless winning machine? Probably not, but stranger things have happened so let’s find out …
Fulham’s home record against Manchester City: Arsenal fans who are hoping Fulham can do their team a favour by taking points off City today will be disappointed to learn that their record against the champions at home is pretty dismal.
In 15 Premier League games at Craven Cottage, Fulham have won just once – a 2-1 in November 2005, when both the home side’s goals were scored by Steed Malbranque. Fulham have drawn five times against City at the Cottage since football was invented in 1992 and lost on nine occasions.
Erling Haaland: The Manchester City striker has claimed that none of his critics mention how many touches he has made if he scores, with the Norwegian saying that even if he netted nine goals in a game, 10 would be his target. Jamie Jackson reports.
Today’s match officials
Those teams: Both managers make one change each to the teams they sent out last weekend. Marco Silva brings in midfielder Bobby De Cordova-Reid for the injured Sasa Lukic, while Pep Guardiola has dropped Kyle Walker to the bench and picked Ruben Dias ahead of the England left-back. Phil Foden makes his 50th appearance of the season in all competitions and his 300th overall for club and country.
Fulham v Manchester City line-ups
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Diop, Bassey, Robinson, Iwobi, Joao Palhinha, De Cordova-Reid, Andreas Pereira, Willian, Rodrigo Muniz.
Subs: Rodak, Tete, Reed, Jimenez, Wilson, Broja, Cairney, Traore, Ream.
Manchester City: Ederson, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Haaland.
Subs: Walker, Stones, Doku, Ortega, Alvarez, Gomez, Matheus Luiz, Bobb, Lewis.
Is this a real Premier League title race?
Comment: Intrigue, mind games and a credible chance of Manchester City slipping up are all missing from this supposedly epic battle for the Premier League title, writes Jonathan Liew.
Early team news
Fulham are without their Serbian midfielder Sasa Lukic, who has been ruled out of today’s game with a calf injury, while central defender Tosin Aderabioyo has been dropped for the last two games after announcing he will be leaving the club when his contract expires at the end of next month.
Pep Guardiola has a fully fit squad to choose from and may well field the same side that routed Wolves last weekend. Of course with Pep being Pep, there’s every chance he could field a completely different one. We’ll find out soon enough.
Premier League: Fulham v Manchester City
Hoping to leapfrog Arsenal and go to points clear at the Premier League summit, Manchester City travel to Craven Cottage for today’s lunchtime kick-off. With victory in the title race in their own hands, Pep Guardiola’s team seem unlikely to blink against a team whose record against them is dismal, particularly now that Erling Haaland is back in form after his recent one-game goal drought against Real Madrid. The Norwegian striker has scored five goals in his last two games.
Fulham have taken some notable scalps this season, beating Tottenham, Brighton, Manchester United and Arsenal, among others but lost the corresponding fixture at the Etihad Stadium 5-1 in September. Haaland scored a hat-trick in that particular City win and will back himself to be among the goals again on a sunny afternoon in west London. Kick-off at Craven Cottage is at 12.30pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
