Manchester City 3 Fulham 0

Manchester City in the end comfortably beat Fulham at the Etihad Stadium, but the scoreline flattered them as Fulham frequently created big chances until the third goal went in.

After dropping points lately, City knew they needed the three points to put the pressure on United, with their local rivals due to play away at Chelsea the following day. And they got the early breakthrough they needed, Adam Johnson falling under a slight trip from Chris Baird in the 10^th minute, Aguero scored the penalty.

It was a bit of a soft penalty, and when Johnson went down in similar fashion shortly after the ref wasn’t interested. Mind you, David Silva was blatantly fouled in the box later on in the half and the ref somehow didn’t give a penalty for that, perhaps looking to “even things up”.

Anyway the game became surprisingly open after that, Fulham frequently coming forward at pace via quick pass-and-moves that City’s defence found difficult to deal with, and City’s multi-million strike force always a danger too. With chances aplenty at both ends a goal was coming.

So it was just as well for City that Chris Baird turned Adam Johnson’s low cross-shot past his own keeper in the 30^th minute. The rest of the half continued to be just as open, the two goal cushion making it less nail biting for the home side.

The weather conditions took their toll in the second half – snow all afternoon had already left the pitch a bit patchy, and it seemed to get heavier as the match progressed.

Over the half time period it began to significantly stick on all parts of the pitch, and it built up to the extent that several times the referee had to pause the match whilst groundsmen hurried on with shovels to dig out the white lines – otherwise the match would’ve been in danger of being cancelled. And with City 2-0 up it was no surprise the groundsmen were very enthusiastic to make sure the game would reach its conclusion!

Both teams still looked to create chances, and with Fulham still looking dangerous, City got the killer third goal as Aguero set it up on a plate for Dzeko to tap in from close range in the 72nd minute to make it 3-0.

Dzeko soon after this deflected the ball towards his own goal and was lucky to see it narrowly miss going into the net, as the ball instead deflected out off the post. This proved to be the last big opportunity for Fulham, who in the latter stages just seemed to want to get the game done with and get out of the heavy snow.

So a morale boosting victory for Manchester City after recent dropped points, with two points dropped by Manchester United the next day making this win all the more valuable.