City thrash Fulham to attain fourth spot
Mancini’s men produced a memorable performance last night to beat Fulham 4-1 at the Craven Cottage achieving a timely win after Arsenal and Chelsea both went down on Saturday. The emphatic away victory means City now move back in to fourth spot trailing
3 points behind leaders Chelsea.
Carlos Tevez opened the scoring 6 minutes into the game on a forgetful night for Fulham manager Mark Hughes. 2 goals within three minutes from Pablo Zabaleta and Yaya Toure gave City a 3 goal lead before half time. Zoltan Gera was able to grab a consolation
goal for the Cottagers in the second half but Carlos Tevez had already put the game to bed when he grabbed his second goal 10 minutes into the second half.
Tevez was in inspirational form in front of his former Argentina boss Diego Maradona, who was watching the match as a Fulham guest. City captain went past defender Carlos Salcido and slotted the ball in the bottom corner for his first goal of the game.
Fulham’s claims for offside were over-ruled by the linesman. The home side responded positively and enjoyed possession in their opponents half but the final delivery let them down. Fulham gifted the ball to David Silva from a misdirected free kick as he played
Aleksandar Kolarov through but Kolarov’s early shot was put out of play by a well placed Fulham keeper. City were on target again after Zabaleta let go a powerful strike from 25 yards out, which was deflected in to the top corner of Damien Duffs heal. Yaya
Toure scored City’s third with an unstoppable strike in the bottom corner following a wonderful build up involving Silva, Joao Alves Jo and Tevez.
Duff was replaced by Zoltan Gera at halftime and Fulham started the second half aggressively. City however replied back with Tevez’s second goal of the game when Zabaleta’s shot smacked the Argentine’s foot as he flicked it over the goalkeeper rather
cheekily. Gera was able to put his name on the score sheet for Fulham after Jo’s headed clearance from a corner fell to his feet. Gera’s shoot deflected of Kolo Toure’s foot before ending up in the net.
The defeat means Fulham are out of the relegation zone merely due to a better goal difference. Mark Hughes stated after the match, “Obviously we lost a little bit of belief after the first goal. The one thing you don't want to do is concede early”
Hughes went on to say that Manchester city is a definite title contender if they start playing a more attack minded game at home, “On their performance today certainly they’re contenders.”
Fulham’s defender Aaron Hughes expressed his disappointment on a horrendous loss, “Their first goal came early, but even at 1-0 down we kept going and tried to have a go, but it was the second and third goal in the space of three minutes that really
killed the game off.”
After two consecutive 0-0 draws against Manchester United and Birmingham City, Mancini was being criticized for being overly defensive. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson blamed City’s tactics in the Manchester derby for a lifeless match. At Craven
Cottage however, Mancini’s men played with a much more attacking mind set. City’s manager praised his team’s performance, “I am delighted with the performance and the result. The guys played some great football, but I don’t think there was a lot of difference
to last week. We created a lot of chances in the second half against Birmingham, and building on that today we showed that one goal can change a game quickly.”
Manchester City will face Stoke City away from home in their next premier league fixture.
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