MANCHESTER CITY 3-0 FULHAM: Erling Haaland made the game safe before half-time with an exquisite finish after Antoine Semenyo and Nico O’Reilly had put City in control
For a good 20 minutes, nothing much went right for Antoine Semenyo. He was involved in some promising moves but, unfortunately, his involvement generally meant those moves came to an unproductive end.
He is that type of player, Semenyo. For lengthy spells, he can look out of sorts. He can look out of rhythm with his team-mates.
But this is a player Pep Guardiola needed – a player to share the attacking strain with Erling Haaland.
A player who can sense areas of vulnerability, a player who is skilful without being over-elaborate, a player always alert to the defensive mis-step, a pain for full-backs and centre-backs alike.
He can play wide, he can play central, but, above all, he is a bona fide striker.
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He is predatory, anticipating the misdirected header from Sander Berge to open the scoring after those ineffective 20 minutes.
He can pick the simple, effective pass, as he did to enable Nico O’Reilly to round off a real whip-crack of a counter-attack with Manchester City’s second.
And he can make a diversionary run, the type of which gave Haaland the space to collect Phil Foden’s clever short pass and fizz home his first goal from open play in the Premier League in almost eight weeks.
That made it three before the break, allowing Guardiola not to risk Haaland in the second half after the striker had taken a knock in playing his part in the build-up to O’Reilly’s beauty.
Haaland had been fit enough to carry on long enough to score his 22nd Premier League goal of the season, so the issue can surely not have been that serious but Semenyo’s signing at least reassures Guardiola that he has alternatives if the worst occurred.
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Anyhow, Haaland will need his minutes managed in the hectic finale to City’s season.
And the same goes for other key players. With the advantage still at three after an hour, Guardiola was able to give Bernardo Silva a breather and after his efforts over the past few matches, it was certainly deserved.
If City do push Arsenal all the way, no-one will have played a more important role than Silva has played.
Remarkably, Silva – at the age of 31 – seems to get more indefatigable with age.
For one half, he pretty much ran the show against a Fulham side that were pleasant on the eye without really threatening to cause an upset.
They should have troubled the scoreboard but found Gianluigi Donnarumma in decent form and wasted a couple of openings with surprisingly sloppy passes.
And in a second half when there were more substitutions than attempts on goal, the game became a complete non-event.
Although the outcome was settled, City were a touch disappointing in their attacking efforts but while they made little impact, the quality of the substitutes was significant.
With an increasingly healthy roster, this is a City squad that looks distinctly capable of keeping the pressure on Arsenal.
And in Semenyo, they have an asset that will lead the way.
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