Manchester City did the damage in the first half against Fulham before Pep Guardiola grew increasingly annoyed as the match went on
21:39, 11 Feb 2026Updated 21:56, 11 Feb 2026
Matheus Nunes passed the ball out of play and Pep Guardiola had seen enough. The Manchester City manager jabbed angrily to his assistant Pep Lijnders, lashed out an arm to summon Abdukodir Khusanov and the next time the ball went out of play Nunes’s night was over.
Once again, Guardiola must have been asking how it had come to this. City had been all over a poor Fulham from the first whistle and were three goals to the good by half-time. Surely their spell of not turning up for a second half would end against such poor opposition when they had all the momentum?
Apparently not. For the umpteenth time, City came out after the break looking like a side that had never played together before as their manager shouted himself hoarse on the touchline trying to snap them out of it. Fulham weren’t good enough to capitalise, yet other teams already have and more will do so in future if it isn’t improved.
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That is why Guardiola struck such a note of caution in his press conference days after beating Liverpool, knowing that his team need to be far more consistent across 90 minutes and solve their weird disappearing act in games if they are to push Arsenal all the way. What came before the second half, though, is the sort of consistency that means they are now just three points off top spot in the Premier League.
Despite a slow start in attack, City’s three banks of two ahead of the defence worked again with Nico O’Reilly and his towering frame growing every game into the midfield battle and Phil Foden energetic in his first league start since derby defeat last month. With a charitable Sander Berge chipping in to help an errant City attack by gifting the ball to Antoine Semenyo in the six-yard box, the hosts were on their way and never looked back.
A slick counter-attack helped by Haaland saw Nico O’Reilly exchange passes with Semenyo and clip the ball past Bernd Leno. City’s No.9 was clattered into moments after sending the ball but the fact that several players rushed to him when the ball went in despite him being 40 yards back reflected the contribution.
City’s No.9 was then fed by Foden and slotted in his 29th goal of the season from outside of the box to finish the game before half-time. If you could make the case that Fulham had turned up, nobody needed to in the second half.
Except City did if they wanted to show that they were making the progress that Guardiola wants them to. They didn’t, and that brought his anger on them before he turned fire on the referee and earned yet another booking.
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That will all need work, but City now have nine days before their next league game and another week after that to get on the training ground to make those tweaks. For now, being three points behind Arsenal is enough and if they are any closer than nine behind when they next kick off given the Gunners now play twice then this result will feel even better.
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