Mateo Kovacic Erling Haaland Jeremy Doku Man City 2024-25Getty/GOAL

Man City player ratings vs Fulham: Erling Haaland, where were you?! Mighty Mateo Kovacic gets it done as Norwegian misfires & Jack Grealish goes missing

Manchester City recovered from a goal behind against Fulham as two efforts from Mateo Kovacic, and one from Jeremy Doku, ensured Pep Guardiola's side closed the gap at the summit to just a single point.

City received an early warning of Fulham's threat when Adama Traore raced clear one-on-one, only to be denied by Ederson. But in the 26th minute, Marco Silva's side did take a surprise lead - Alex Iwobi finding Raul Jimenez in the area before the striker produced an exquisite back-heel flick into the six-yard box, which Andreas Pereira pounced upon to score.

The visitors should have made it 2-0 moments later when they broke with three players on two, but Traore blazed his shot over the bar from close range. And City made their opponents pay when Kovacic turned the game on its head with two goals either side of half-time. The Croatian midfielder smashed a loose ball into the net from a corner in the 32nd minute and added a second shortly after the restart with a fine finish beyond Bernd Leno.

Fulham pushed in search of an equalisier but their efforts faded when Doku sealed the win with a brilliant strike into the top corner in the 82nd minute. Rodrigo Muniz gave the London side a glimmer of hope very late on but they were unable to find a third.

This wasn't a divine City performance - Traore was guilty of another missed one-on-one in the second half - but they did enough to secure all three points as they head off for the international break.

GOAL rates City's players from Etihad Stadium...

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