This is a comment from a Fulham fan in the comments section of Jamie Paradise’s match report in the guardian.
it’s a hell of a lot better than the actual match report.
”
The Manchester City vs Fulham head-to-head over the last decade has been a procession for the former - like David vs Goliath, only if David never won. With Neeskens Kebano sidelined until 2023 and Aleksandar Mitrovic robbed from us in yet another World Cup influenced rest, our already slim chances thinned further.
The first 25 minutes were hell. We were trapped in dismal cycle of watching City cruise around the Etihad with the ball until they lost it, and us scrape together three passes before timidly losing possession. City are a beautiful side to watch until you play them, and it becomes tortuous, akin to trying to stop the tide consuming the sand of a beach. The opening goal was inevitable - Gundogan gliding past our midfield, launching Alvarez past Ream into the box and the Argentine opening the scoring. For a time, the question appeared to be one of magnitude over result - how great a hit to our goal difference could we endure?
But football’s unpredictability makes it the world’s most popular sport. From a fortunate deflection between Ake and Vinicius, the Brazilian played Wilson into the box, Cancelo shamelessly shoved Wilson to the ground, and Pereira converted the penalty to give us an equaliser. Crucially, the circumstances of the game changed - Cancelo was sent off, removing a vital cog for Manchester City and giving us the opportunity to recover from our tepid start. For the rest of the first half we played with more impetus, pressing the depleted City backline and carrying ourselves with greater energy. For all of City’s lustre they were for a brief moment an expensively assembled ten man team, and their nerves and frustration took precedence over their gallery of greatness.
A wounded tiger is still a killing machine though. Manchester City returned to the action with more cool, their snarls and grimaces hidden behind the ice-cold temperament Guardiola drills into them, and set about passing their way to victory. The notion that we had any advantage was a faint one - much as we did in the first half, our football amounted to little more than aimless hoofs away from goal and gentle counter-attacks into City’s half, albeit with a slight numerical advantage. The gravity of the situation clearly begun to play on Fulham minds - worsened by the arrival of Phil Foden and the terrifying Erling Haaland from City’s star-studded bench. Despite this, City’s abundance of possession failed to manifest into many clear chances - we clung onto our parity throughout the half, relying on defensive congestion, admittedly snide fouls and even lady luck herself, Haaland protruding marginally infront of Diop to disallow his header. Maybe David would have a point at full time after all.
It only takes one moment with City’s brilliance though, and the majesty of Kevin De Bruyne finally gave them a key chance in the final stages of the match - dazzling Antonee Robinson into a trip and giving Haaland the spot-kick. Of course he scored, but not before the sands of time offered one last glimmer of a result for us - Leno predicted the direction of the shot correctly but was unable to parry it away from goal. A 2-1 victory for City, but a gutting one through the circumstances of the match.
There’s a trickiness in evaluating the Fulham performance. Any side in the world playing at the Etihad will struggle, not least when they are a newly promoted team, and to keep City at bay until the fifth minute of stoppage time is an achievement. We were spirited and tenacious throughout, and gave City’s technical masters little space or time to work the ball through the channels. However my mind can’t help but think back to the moments after the red card, with City reeling and Fulham in the ascendency - had that been maintained for longer, even up against a team as good as Manchester City, we’d have had more fight in the match and not slunk back into our shells. What could we have done if Wilson and Willian had done more to press Stones and Ake, two natural centre-backs, at full back? If we’d tried to target Rodri in the hub of the City team and overload Akanji with our numerical advantage? If we’d put James on sooner and used more speed in our counter-attacks? At times we sat behind the ball and punted it back to City - regardless of the acclaim of our opponents we had a brilliant opportunity to attack one of the best sides in the country in a weakened state and we didn’t take it.
I also thought we were a little fortunate across the game - the red card was the result of Cancelo’s latest brain explosion, several cynical challenges we made went unpunished by the referee across the match (for as petulant as Bernardo Silva can be he did have a point at times) and even with ten men City evaded our backline on more than one occasion. Tim Ream lived a fragile existence, being beaten for pace by Alvarez and even De Bruyne countless times and relying on the swifter Diop to bail him out. Tete had a torrid return to the first team against Grealish and Cancelo and if the Portuguese hadn’t have departed early would have suffered more. Most egregious was Robinson, being drawn into a cheap penalty right at the death - it was a move reminiscent of his worst moments from the Championship. Palhinha worked very hard but had no outlet at all - Vinicius, Wilson and Pereira constantly lost the ball and handed City reprieves when we should have been targeting their defence. Cairney and James should have come on much sooner - our captain has the ballwork to make the difference and the Welshman would have offered speed in critical counter-attacking situations. Mitrovic is still the key for us - without him, our attack loses its bite, and several opportunities were spurned that he’d have done more with.
Some praise should be sent City’s way though - they dug deep and got a win to return to the Premier League’s summit. Haaland was the difference again - sniff at penalties all you like, a host of City players in that squad miss at the death and give Fulham a point. He gave City the extra edge with a man depleted with his strength and presence, constantly working Fulham’s central players and forcing us back into our own box. De Bruyne is quite incredible - with his team snapping and bickering with each other his quality was a constant, with a gallery of the finest passes and crosses decorating City’s half even in the toil of the rain and man disadvantage. As a team players like Gundogan and Bernardo Silva make them smooth on the ball at any occasion, and despite the trying times City were still able to pass the ball around us at the back - I thought Stones, Ake and Ederson quietly had very strong matches. The only real fault is Cancelo, who changed the match with his ridiculous decision - even if Wilson had scored from his initial chance, would City really have struggled to beat us with eleven men based on what was seen today?
Realistically we were expecting defeat from this match, and given Manchester United are our next opponents remaining on 19 for the restart in December was what we’d planned for, but to be denied in such galling circumstances will be a major knock to morale for the team, even if we did take City all the way. Combine that with the suspensions for our key midfielder Harrison Reed, our right back Kenny Tete (who has only just returned from injury) and yet another knock for Harry Wilson and perhaps the upcoming break isn’t so poorly timed for us - a chance to get the World Cup out of the way for Mitrovic and tackle the second phase of the Premier League. It is Manchester City’s day - they have undeniably proven that they are one of the best teams in the world, able to win from increasingly difficult positions, and will take some stopping if they are to be denied a serious trophy haul this season.”
