Manchester City 3-0 Fulham: 5 Talking Points

Leroy Sane, David Silva and Raheem Sterling scored as Manchester City made light work of newly-promoted Fulham at the Etihad Stadium to warm up for the Champions League encounter against Lyon in the best possible way.

Pep Guardiola’s side wasted little time in converting their quality into goals as Leroy Sane tapped in Fernandinho’s cross after the Brazilian intercepted Jean Michael Seri’s pass. The lead was soon doubled when Bernardo Silva’s ground cross fell into the path of David Silva, who blasted his shot past a wrong-footed Marcus Bettinelli.

The game was put to bed as a contest early in the second half, when Sergio Aguero made a brilliant run from wide right, before laying the ball on a plate for Raheem Sterling to convert and consequently shift City’s focus to European football in midweek.

Here are the talking points from a one-sided game at the Etihad:

#1 Early goal sets the tone of the game

The tone of the game was known to everyone in the stadium and beyond even before a ball was kicked. Slavisa Jovanovic was aware that his team had to set up very well defensively against the flair and intensity of City. All his A-game plans, however, would go out of the window within the first two minutes, as Jean Michael Seri’s sloppy pass in his own half was gobbled up by Fernandinho, who galloped into space before whipping in a perfectly weighed pass across the face of goal for Leroy Sane to tap in and get the rout underway.

The Cottagers, naturally, were forced to open up and in the process lost possession while attempting to get the ball forward. City were rampant, ruthless and it was pretty much one-way traffic once the net bulged inside the opening 100 seconds despite missing fullback Benjamin Mendy and Kevin de Bruyne in midfield. David Silva was the chief perpetrator, slicing open a hapless Fulham defence with passes to set his team-mates up. It was just another day in the office for Pep Guardiola and his group of record-breaking champions.

#2 Goalkeeper Bettinelli keeps the score down

With City creating chances galore and getting balls in behind the Fulham defence with eye-catching ease, it was critical for Cottagers’ goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli to be at his utmost best with his goal being peppered with shots from all coordinates of the box.

Thankfully for the visitors, he was in good shape at the Etihad, getting his body and gloves behind whichever shots that were expected to be saved. The pick of those saves was to get a touch from Sterling’s shot in a one-on-one situation, which was parried on to the post.

Apart from that, Bettinelli pulled off a series of impressive stops to keep the score-line respectable for the newly-promoted side, who, like most teams visiting the Etihad, are up against a side that show no mercy when in the mood. He was faultless for any of the three goals, such was the authority with which City went about their business in the attacking third.

#3 Under-fire Leroy Sane stars in first league start

Amongst the group of players with sky-high confidence at Manchester City, one man who hasn’t exactly been riding the same boat as his colleagues is young Leroy Sane. The German, who had a scintillating season last time round, has fallen off the radar with a surprise omission from the World Cup squad as well from the starting XI in City’s opening 4 games of the season.

With Champions League football commencing this week, Guardiola felt it was necessary to rotate his squad and experiment his bench strength. As a result, Sane got his chance and the German was in excellent touch from the first minute.

Post his opening goal, he dominated the left side, making dangerous inroads from the left byline to receive a pass. Fulham’s right back Cyrus Christie was the victim of Sane’s pace and intelligence on the ball, often finding himself out of position against the German World Cup reject, who has surely staked a claim for a regular place in Guardiola’s first XI in the Premier League as well as in Europe.

#4 Pep experiments with his defence in the absence of Mendy and Danilo

Fernandinho played at right-back for the final third of the game

With the result already beyond doubt once Raheem Sterling tapped in Aguero’s low cross, Pep Guardiola saw the situation as an opportunity to re-shuffle his men in defence ahead of a hectic schedule of 7 games in three days and full-backs Benjamin Mendy and Danilo injured. With half an hour to play, starting left-back Fabian Delph was subbed off for German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan.

Natural right-back Kyle Walker fitted into left-back, with defensive midfielder Fernandinho deployed as a makeshift right back. The switch in personnel hardly made City vulnerable to any degree of Fulham pressure, as they played ‘keep-ball’ for the remainder of the game and professionally ran down the clock. In fact, it was Fernandinho who managed to bring the ball up the right flank and get a cross or two in.

Walker’s stint at left-back clearly displayed his lack of a threatening left-foot, cutting in every time the ball fell at his feet. Though the move is unlikely to be repeated in future games, Pep’s affordability to experiment only sought to reflect the levels of class by which they dominated the opposition at the Etihad on Saturday.

#5 Hapless Fulham can be credited for testing City a handful of times

Chances were few and far between for Fulham

Though the London outfit were virtually second-best throughout the game, they can be credited for testing the City defence on a couple of occasions on the break – something unthinkable for teams of similar stature when they visit Manchester City. German forward Andre Schurrle, who cut an isolated figure for long spells, let loose a fierce shot that just flew over the crossbar.

Togolese forward, Floyd Ayite’s shot narrowly went wide after Cyrus Christie dispossessed Sane (for probably the first time in the game) and delivered a good low ball across the box. Aleksandar Mitrovic’s injury-time shot was saved by Ederson to preserve the clean sheet.

Fulham were well beaten on the day, but not all teams get opportunities to have a crack at the City defence especially after a rough experience on the other end. Jovanovic’s side will take this as a positive going into a less nightmarish fixture at home to Watford the following weekend.