Pep Guardiola said that it had been “impossible” for him to enjoy Manchester City’s 5-4 victory against Fulham that moved them to within two points of the Premier League leaders Arsenal, given how close his team came to throwing away a four‑goal lead.
City were 5-1 in front at Craven Cottage after 54 minutes and seemingly cruising to an easy win. But then came an extraordinary fightback from Fulham.
Inside 21 minutes the home side scored three goals, two of which came from the half-time substitute Samuel Chukwueze. The on-loan Nigeria international was excellent and almost inspired a comeback for the ages, but City held on.
“Did you enjoy it? I lost my hair,” Guardiola said. “I thought the players were happy to work with me … it’s the Premier League. I know you’re going to ask what happened but I don’t have an answer. Football is emotion – all the goals were bad defending, we go so deep to defend these kinds of crosses, we have to occupy the spaces a bit better but we made incredible things today because I know how difficult the team is.
“It was impossible for me to enjoy it. At 5-1 maybe, but at 5-4 I was watching the clock more than the game. It was tough and it would have been tougher if we could not get the result, but I will remember I was there. At 5-1 you [the media] thought it was finished. You had written your articles. Tomorrow: ‘Manchester City are back … finally.’ And after, to the trash. You have to start again.”
Erling Haaland opened the scoring for City after 17 minutes, in the process becoming the fastest player to reach 100 goals in Premier League history. Not surprisingly, Guardiola was full of praise for the Norway striker. “For people up front it’s a question of numbers, and his numbers have no discussion,” he said.
“When he arrived, if you told me he would score 100 in 111 games I would say are you sure? In this league? And he did it. The milestones are insane. I’m happy for him, happy for the team to deliver for him and continue so that we improve that.”
A sanguine Marco Silva saluted the “impressive” character of his side but was also critical of the manner in which they initially allowed the match to run away from them. “We have to do each match better quicker,” he said. “We didn’t and, of course, they punished us.”
