Man City 2-0 Fulham: Title race more open this season - Guardiola

Pep Guardiola believes this season's Premier League title race will be more open than in previous campaigns, with his Manchester City side now fourth in the table after a comfortable win over Fulham.

Having struggled for consistency so far this season, City are now three points behind the leagues joint leaders, Tottenham and reigning champions Liverpool.

As it stands, just four points separates the sides at the top and Wolves in ninth.

"In my first season, Chelsea dominated and the next three were us and Liverpool, we controlled the league.

"But Leicester came here and scored five goals and then this week lost against Fulham, who we've just beaten. It is like how the Premier League was, everyone can beat everyone.

"The important thing is to be in there.

"In this month, it was important to focus on qualification in the Champions League and now we focus on the Premier League. It will be a long, long season for all the clubs."

City ensured their progress to the Champions League last 16 with two group games to spare, meaning they could rest players for the 0-0 draw in Porto that preceded Saturday's win.

Guardiola's side recorded their now annual 5-0 home win over Burnley last weekend and were similarly dominant, albeit a bit wasteful against the Cottagers.

Sterling and De Bruyne laid the platform for the win, with the latter setting up the former to slot in the opening goal.

The roles were then reversed with the England winger tripped in the box by Joachim Andersen to allow the Belgian midfielder to score from the penalty spot.

The pair could easily have had another four goals between them but Fulham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola made a string of good saves, while De Bruyne also struck the bar with a shot.

It is the first time this campaign that City have won back-to-back league matches and it lifts them to a spot in the table more in keeping of a side with title aspirations.

Fulham spent most of the game repelling attacks, but at least tried to ask questions of the home side, as they did to far greater effect at Leicester on Monday.

An eighth defeat of the season means the Cottagers remain 17th in the table, one point better off than West Brom and Burnley, both of whom have played a game less.

• Non-league to Premier League - pick your ultimate 'rags-to-riches XI'

Pep reaches 700 as City make their move

This was City boss Pep Guardiola's 700th game as a manager, during which he has won 29 major trophies in 11 seasons, including two Premier League titles with City.

Their inconsistent form in the early stages of this campaign has prompted some to question whether they are capable of reclaiming the English top-flight crown, which they relinquished to Liverpool last season.

The critics may not be entirely won over by successive victories over such vastly inferior opposition as Burnley and Fulham, but they cannot deny the ease with which they were dispatched.

Nor can they ignore the small signs of that confident swagger returning to City's play nor the ominous stamping of authority on both games by De Bruyne, who scored his first league goal since the opening day win over Wolves and made it 14 assists in 2020 - more than any other Premier League player.

City weren't perfect - this should have at least matched the scoreline against Burnley - and there are bigger challenges to come, not least of all at Manchester United in their next league fixture, but with some stars rediscovering their form and Sergio Aguero reportedly soon to return from injury, another title challenge from Guardiola's side is well under way.

"We struggled at the beginning of the season for many reasons. Now four games, four clean sheets. It's so important for us to maintain this solidity," added Guardiola.

"The finishing was wasteful. We know we have to improve this, but it's important to keep creating the chances. In the last 20 minutes we lost too many simple balls, which is a problem.

"We have to do the simple things better. That is the next step."

As for Fulham, you could forgive them for viewing this as something of a free hit, especially after having claimed a morale-boosting second win of the season earlier in the week.

Their season was never going to be defined by a fixture against an opponent who have now beaten them 10 times in a row by an aggregate of 29-3.

They failed to produce a meaningful effort at goal bar a couple of speculative Ivan Cavaleiro shots, but will be pleased at the determination and discipline they showed in not crumbling after Sterling's early opener.

Things don't get any easier for Scott Parker's side, though. Up next: champions Liverpool.

"I see a team that had some fight today," said Fulham boss Scott Parker. "I really liked what we were about in the second half. There's no shame in losing to a quality side. I asked for spirit and personality and I thought we had that.

"The performances this week will stand us in very good stead. The first few games we weren't in the contest and since then we've been right in them. Today was another big performance. We'll keep building."

Guardiola with a 72% win percentage

• This was Man City boss Pep Guardiola's 700th match in charge in his managerial career (W507 D111 L82), while it was his 250th in all competitions with the Citizens (W179 D34 L37).
• Manchester City are unbeaten in their last 16 meetings with Fulham in all competitions (W13 D3), winning the last 10 in a row by an aggregate score of 29-3.
• Fulham have conceded more goals than any other Premier League side this season (21), with no side conceding in more different games than the Cottagers (10).
• Manchester City have scored as many goals over their last two Premier League games as they had in their previous seven in the competition (7).
• This was the first time Manchester City didn't make a single substitute in a Premier League match since April 2005, in a 2-2 draw with Charlton Athletic.
• Since joining Manchester City in 2015, Kevin De Bruyne has both scored and assisted a goal in 16 different Premier League games - no player has done so more in that time (level with Mohamed Salah).
• Man City's Raheem Sterling has won 20 penalties in the Premier League, more than any other player in the competition's history.
• Man City's Kevin de Bruyne has been involved in more shots than any other Premier League player this season (62 - 34 shots, 28 chances created), with the Belgian involved in eight against Fulham this afternoon (6 shots, 2 chances created).

Player of the match

De BruyneKevin De Bruyne

with an average of 7.22

• Man CityManchester CityManchester City
• FulhamFulhamFulham

Manchester City

Avg

1. Squad number17Player nameDe Bruyne

   Average rating

   7.22
2. Squad number26Player nameMahrez

   Average rating

   6.89
3. Squad number8Player nameGündogan

   Average rating

   6.55
4. Squad number3Player nameRúben Dias

   Average rating

   6.51
5. Squad number27Player nameJoão Cancelo

   Average rating

   6.46
6. Squad number5Player nameStones

   Average rating

   6.40
7. Squad number16Player nameRodri

   Average rating

   6.39
8. Squad number31Player nameEderson

   Average rating

   6.33
9. Squad number22Player nameMendy

   Average rating

   6.15
10. Squad number7Player nameSterling

    Average rating

    6.04
11. Squad number9Player nameGabriel Jesus

    Average rating

    5.64

Fulham

Avg

1. Squad number1Player nameAreola

   Average rating

   6.73
2. Squad number16Player nameTosin

   Average rating

   6.06
3. Squad number29Player nameZambo Anguissa

   Average rating

   5.73
4. Squad number5Player nameAndersen

   Average rating

   5.70
5. Squad number17Player nameCavaleiro

   Average rating

   5.55
6. Squad number21Player nameReed

   Average rating

   5.54
7. Squad number34Player nameAina

   Average rating

   5.40
8. Squad number19Player nameLookman

   Average rating

   5.36
9. Squad number33Player nameRobinson

   Average rating

   5.36
10. Squad number14Player nameDe Cordova-Reid

    Average rating

    5.27
11. Squad number10Player nameCairney

    Average rating

    5.20
12. Squad number15Player nameLoftus-Cheek

    Average rating

    5.14
13. Squad number18Player nameLemina

    Average rating

    4.94
14. Squad number47Player nameKamara

    Average rating

    4.83

• Louis Theroux is back: I May Destroy You star Michaela Coel joins for his new series
• Harry Kane exclusive: The England captain talks VAR, fans returning and Justin Bieber