February 12, (THEWILL) — A comfortable three-goal victory over Fulham allowed City to cut Arsenal’s English Premier League lead to just three points at the Etihad Stadium.
The hosts controlled the match from the opening whistle and never looked threatened as they capitalised on the opportunity to apply pressure on the Gunners, who face Brentford on Thursday.
Antoine Semenyo opened the scoring in the 24th minute, converting from close range after Matheus Nunes’ delivery deflected off Sander Berge and dropped into his path.
The forward turned creator six minutes later, threading through Nico O’Reilly to finish on the counter just 51 seconds after Gianluigi Donnarumma had denied Harry Wilson.
Erling Haaland effectively settled the contest in the 39th minute with a precise strike from the edge of the box, his first open-play league goal since 20 December.
The Norwegian was withdrawn at half-time, and replacement Omar Marmoush tested Bernd Leno in pursuit of a fourth.
The second half saw the intensity drop considerably, though Emile Smith Rowe, Rodrigo Muniz, and Josh King all forced saves from Donnarumma. City maintained their clean sheet with minimal difficulty to complete a professional performance.
The victory comes on the back of Sunday’s remarkable comeback win at Anfield against Liverpool, where Guardiola’s team recovered from a goal down to claim all three points.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
