Manchester City Ease Past Fulham Again To Reach the Cup Quarter Final

A much changed Manchester City side brushed past Fulham again.

This game saw Manchester City engage in a practice match against a Fulham team who looked devoid of confidence and ideas. To all intents and purposes, Fulham just seemed to want to get the whole experience over and done with, which was a surprise as the manager had named a surprisingly strong side. I expected Fulham to prioritise their relegation battle and to rest players for this game, but that was not the case.

As expected it was Manchester City who made wholesale changes to their team, starting a side which was a combination of youth and first teamers returning from lengthy bouts of injury. City made 10 changes to the team which beat Tottenham Hotspur on Monday. They decided to use the match as an opportunity to practice their possession based football, and for large periods Fulham only saw the ball at a distance, as it whizzed past from City player to City player.

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Despite this the scoreline was kept low by a combination of things. Firstly, City showed their usual level of wastefulness in the few clear cut chances on goal they created. They had 27 shots on goal during the game but only 7 of these were on target. Secondly, the match was played at a slow pace, reinforcing the feeling this was a practice match.

The first goal came about from a scrappy period of play and ended with a Brahim Diaz shot being deflected into the net. Diaz bustled about through the game, pleased to be on the pitch and keen to put himself in the shop window as his contract standoff continues.

Sane should have added a second goal in the 33rd minute when he found himself clear through on goal following some good play, but he snapped at a shot rather than passing and the chance was gone.

The second half ended with the Fulham keeper making a lovely full stretch save from Gabriel Jesus after a twinkling run and dribble through a sea of defenders. It was clear that Fulham viewed losing by a couple of goals as a result.

The second half was much the same. City retained possession but lacked the intensity and cutting edge of recent weeks. When they did have chances they tended to over pass and fluffed their lines. The second goal came from some further intricate attacking play and a Gabriel Jesus shot rebounded off the post into the path of Diaz, who could not believe his luck, and fired the ball into the net past the keeper. This was game over.

Phil Foden made a strong claim to have more minutes on the pitch with a solid performance. He did not look out of place alongside De Bruyne playing against a Premier League team, and that’s a big compliment to a young player. Foden has real quality and is exactly the kind of young player we would try and sign if he wasn’t already one of ours.

The City team kept the ball and saw the game out, but this was in a curiously quiet stadium where a professional job was concluded by this much changed Manchester City team. City did not set the world alight here, but its wrong to expect that every game.

The only concern was the withdrawal of Kevin De Bruyne in the last 10 minutes following a clumsy challenge. He looked to be in some discomfort with his knee and we will now all be hoping he simply felt a knock rather than repeating a knee ligament injury. When De Bruyne left the field Pep Guardiola brought on Claudio Gomes, the 18 year old French player signed from Paris Saint Germain in the Summer. He settled quickly and resembled a young N’Golo Kante as he recovered the ball around the pitch.

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All told this was a professional result achieved with spare gas in the tank. At this stage of the season having the chance to get some minutes under the belt for some of our squad players was a welcome distraction from the rigours of the Premier League. We are back again on Sunday and its likely Southampton will prove much harder opponents.

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