Pep Guardiola praises Mateo Kovacic after brace over Fulham, "Kova was really important"

Manchester City have come out of their latest Premier League matchday with three points thanks to a 3-2 victory over Fulham, after two consecutive weeks of only winning one point through a 2-2 draw with Arsenal and then a 1-1 draw with Newcastle.

Manchester City continue to stay one point behind current League leaders Liverpool, who also found victory to keep first place after a 1-0 result over Crystal Palace.

After a 4-0 thrashing of Slovan Bratislava in Europe midweek, which added Man City's first three points of the new Champions League season to the League table, totalling it up to four points and putting them on eighth place after matchday two; the Cityzens now return to winning ways in the Premier League and have gone upto 17 points.

The game between Manchester City and Fulham saw a very unlikely goalscorer, who helped secure the win for Man City as Mateo Kovacic came up with a brace to make it 2-1 in Man City's favour, while Jeremy Doku sealed the deal when scoring City's third goal of the afternoon before Fulham made it 3-2.

Pep Guardiola on the 3-2 win

"My feeling is the game was well played. In the first half, I think it was well played but for one or two transitions. I always had the feeling that they had chances but it was well played. We scored the third and we felt we were going to control but in that moment we didn't know what was going to happen. (It was) a fantastic goal from Jeremy (Doku).

"After it happened, it was a tough game but we knew it (was going to be). We talked with the team and said today would be a tough game after a long week and they have lost just one game (Fulham). The rest they had incredible results."

The City boss then moved on to talk about the man of the match Mateo Kovacic, who has now scored three goals this season, "Maybe it happens when he scores two goals," Pep said when highlighting that the attention only falls on Kovacic after he scores, "He is not a guy who scores normally."

“The two goals today in that position were because they could not defend it. The first goal was brilliant, the second as well. Kova was really important. Now the opponents know they cannot leave him alone, otherwise, he can score a goal."