Manchester City 3-2 Fulham

Luckless Fulham forced Manchester City to come from behind in a strong display at the Etihad.

Andreas Pereira had given Marco Silva's men the lead in the first-half, but a brace either side of the break from Mateo Kovačić and a late Jeremy Doku strike turned things around for the hosts.

Rodrigo Muniz kept hopes of an unlikely point alive with his first goal of the season, but the Premier League Champions held out to end the Whites' five-match unbeaten league run.

The home side had two sights of goal early on, when Ilkay Gündogan cracked a half-volley which went wide, and Erling Haaland stood up Joachim Andersen but also failed to find the far corner with a low effort.

Fulham’s first attack came when they hit City on the break, with Alex Iwobi’s angled shot blocked behind after he was picked out by Andreas. When the Brazil international whipped in the resulting corner, Raúl Jiménez rose highest but couldn’t direct his header on target.

There was a huge chance on the quarter-hour mark as a lovely ball from the outside of Raúl’s boot set Adama Traoré free, but Ederson kept the finish out with his feet.

More good work from Fulham, in their red and black away strip, followed as a trademark Antonee Robinson overlap created the chance for him to slide a ball across the box which Manuel Akanji had to cut out.

And Marco Silva’s side took a deserved lead when a fabulous moment of inspiration from Raúl saw the Mexican backheel Iwobi’s cross into the path of Andreas, and the man previously associated with the red side of Manchester poked home.

It should have been two moments later when Raúl kickstarted the counter-attack and Iwobi found Adama in the middle, but our number 11 couldn’t keep his shot down.

Instead, City equalised with one of the few chances they managed to create, as a corner fell to Kovačić and his powerful shot pinballed off a couple of Fulham defenders on its way in.

As well-drilled and organised as Fulham were in the first-half, it took City just two minutes of the second-half to take the lead. Kovačic again, with a shot that bent away from Bernd Leno as it nestled in the bottom left.

Still the visitors caused problems, and when the front three broke forward once more, only a last-ditch block from a blue shirt prevented Raúl from continuing his fine goalscoring form.

The game dipped in tempo as Pep Guardiola’s side slowed things down, although Leno had to be alert when Phil Foden tried to nip in after making a run into the box.

As Fulham battled away, they forged another golden chance. Adama nutmegged his man as he linked up with Raúl, before using every ounce of his pace to sprint clear. Unfortunately, Ederson again won the one-on-one and kept City’s advantage.

On 75 minutes Raúl rued his luck again, as he stretched to get on the end of Jedi’s ball across the box, but the City defence was on hand to make yet another block.

The Champions looked to have ruled out the possibility of an equaliser in the last ten minutes, as Doku cut inside and unleashed an unstoppable strike into the roof of the net. Nothing that Leno, or a valiant Fulham, could have done about that one.