After their stunning match against Liverpool (1-2) a few days ago, Manchester City absolutely had to win this evening against Fulham to continue to widen the gap with Aston Villa. The Citizens fulfilled their mission perfectly, with an impressive first half. Deprived of Rayan Cherki, left on the bench, the club coached by Pep Guardiola quickly took control of the game and scored 3 goals in just 15 minutes. Excellent rookie Semenyo opened the scoring in the 24th minute before turning into a passer, providing a good ball to O’Reilly, who had no trouble finishing with his left foot in the 30th minute to make it 2-0. A few minutes later, the unstoppable Erling Haaland came to score the third goal, practically sealing the fate of the match. In the second half, Manchester City managed their lead perfectly, controlling the tempo and leaving no opportunity to their opponent. With this victory, the Citizens confirm their form and remain firmly established in second place in the championship, provisionally 3 points behind the Gunners.
For its part, a sick Aston Villa, coming from a draw and a defeat, had to redeem themselves against Brighton. Unai Emery’s men failed to gain the upper hand despite slightly dominating possession, against a defensively solid Brighton, and had still not managed to open the scoring before Mings came to offer victory to the Villans in the 86th minute with a header off a service from Leon Bailey. With this success, Aston Villa remains third and returns to just 3 points behind Manchester City. At the same time, a totally crazy match took place between Crystal Palace and Burnley. Larsen had given Palace an early lead with braces in the 17th and 33rd minutes, but before the break Burnley pulled back to 2-2 thanks to two goals in just four minutes from Hannibal and Anthony. Worse still for the locals, Lerma scored against his own camp, giving the visitors the advantage (2-3, 47th), Palace then never managed to reverse the trend. Burnley performed well, but remained penultimate, while Palace settled for 14th position. Finally, Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton parted with a goalless score, a timid 0-0, without either team managing to gain the upper hand.
