Manchester City piles pressure on Arsenal
Manchester City cut Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League table to three points with a comfortable 3-0 win over Fulham at the Etihad Stadium.
Having rallied from 1-0 down to defeat Liverpool at Anfield on Monday, Pep Guardiola's men did not pass up the chance to pile more pressure on the Gunners, who face Brentford on Friday.
City dominated from the first whistle and went ahead in the 24th minute, with Antoine Semenyo turning home on the stretch when Matheus Nunes' cross struck Sander Berge and dropped into his path.
Semenyo had an assist to go with his goal six minutes later, slipping in Nico O'Reilly to finish on the counter-attack only 51 seconds after Gianluigi Donnarumma had denied Harry Wilson.
The contest was effectively over when Erling Haaland got City's third goal in the 39th minute, scoring his first open-play Premier League goal since December 20 with a pinpoint finish from the edge of the area.
Haaland was then withdrawn at the interval, and his replacement Omar Marmoush worked Bernd Leno as City hunted a fourth.
The tempo of the game dropped substantially in the second half, and though Emile Smith Rowe, Rodrigo Muniz and Josh King all worked Donnarumma, City held onto their clean sheet in relative comfort.
The game was effectively over at half-time, with City registering just one shot after the break.
Haaland's strike was his first non-penalty goal in the competition since netting a brace against West Ham on 20 December, ending his longest such drought for City. The Norwegian had 24 non-penalty shots without scoring during that run.
In Haaland and Semenyo, City has two of the three most prolific players in this season's Premier League, and the former Bournemouth man has now registered seven goal involvements against Fulham in the top flight (four goals, three assists).
Since the start of 2024-2025, only Haaland against West Ham (eight) has more goal involvements against a specific opponent in the competition than Semenyo versus Fulham.
City's victory was its 17th in a row against Fulham in the Premier League, stretching its record for the longest winning run by any team against another in English league history.
