At least one Manchester club could defeat second-tier opponents comfortably. While Premier League clubs took it in turns to flirt with FA Cup shocks, and Manchester United consummated an unwanted relationship, few dalliances were as brief as Manchester City’s. Behind after four minutes, level after six, ahead after 13, and three goals to the good before the hour mark, one of the season’s fastest comebacks left Fulham with about 90 seconds to savour an unexpected lead before succumbing to a 4-1 defeat.
Top of the Premier League beat top of the Championship and, if it is scarcely news that there is a gulf between the divisions and if Fulham showed more ambition at the Etihad than many a top-flight team, they were nonetheless dispatched.
It amounted to further proof of City’s enviable resources. Even without his first-choice centre-back partnership and holding midfielder, who were joined on the bench at the beginning by Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling, Pep Guardiola named a starting 11 that cost £470m. It explains why City can feel almost immune to cup shocks. Since their 2018 defeat to Wigan, they have one exit, to West Ham on penalties, from either domestic knockout competition before the semi-final stage. A depth of talent means rotation is scarcely weakening the side and if some of their peers actually have more players, City consistently have a high-calibre 20. When they are this prolific, it explains why they can buy Julian Alvarez and leave him in Argentina for a few months.
The costliest of his future teammates, Jack Grealish, produced one of the finest moments of his City career with a wonderful solo run to win the penalty for their third goal. It was the first of Riyad Mahrez’s brace, while Kevin De Bruyne recorded two assists. When Guardiola rested him for the final quarter of the game, on came Sterling.
The outcome was decided before then and it was predictable, City’s 11th straight win against Fulham, Guardiola’s ninth in a row against Marco Silva. It always promised to be a high-scoring affair and clubs who kicked off with 160 goals between them this season made it 163 within a quarter of an hour. First came a swift early exchange of goals. City had kept six consecutive clean sheets against Fulham but conceded to the visitors’ first attack. Fabio Carvalho, the prodigy who almost joined Liverpool, arrived in the box with perfect timing to tuck in Harry Wilson’s cross.
City’s response was emphatic and immediate. Mahrez, back from Africa to the Mancunian rain, picked out Ilkay Gundogan, who calmly found the corner of the net. John Stones then glanced in a header from De Bruyne’s corner. If Guardiola is scarcely a byword for centre-backs scoring from set-pieces, City’s defenders have actually been deadly from such situations this season.
That felt prosaic compared to the third. Grealish supplied some of the magic with the sort of run City may have envisaged seeing more often when they agreed to pay Aston Villa £100m for him; the ability to glide and dart between defenders who seemed certain to crowd him out. Joe Bryan’s only way of halting Grealish was illegal and Mahrez converted the spotkick.
His 14th goal of the season cemented his status as City’s penalty taker. His 15th moved him further clear as top scorer and was a rarity: a right-footed finish. It came on a quick counter-attack, De Bruyne getting a second assist by curling the ball into Mahrez’s path. If his finish was scuffed and took a slight deflection, it still found the net.
Carvalho could and perhaps should have got a second for Fulham, with a rather meek effort after Zack Steffen had repelled Neeskens Kebano’s thunderbolt, and he did not look out of place on such a stage. City then turned to youth in James McAtee and Liam Delap, and briefly the latter – the 19-year-old son of Rory – thought he had a first senior goal. It was chalked off, but City’s place in the last 16 was secure before his introduction.
