Man City's rich reserves find off Fulham to stretch out lead
Manchester City showed their strength comprehensive as a much-changed part by Pep Guardiola won 3-0 at Fulham on Saturday to stretch out their lead near the top of the Premier League to 17 points.
All three goals came in the earliest quarter-hour of the second-one half as John Stones, Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero struck to take on City ever closer to a third league subject in four years.
Manchester United have several games in hand on the runaway leaders, but City desire a maximum of just 14 points from their final eight games to say the title.
"The dynamic of the growing season is great," said Guardiola. "The second-half was so important. It is an significant victory for all of us and we will be closer."
Guardiola's men are still on course for a good historic quadruple of trophies this year.
Ahead of their go back to Champions League actions against Borussia Monchengladbach found in Budapest in Tuesday, the Catalan trainer made seven changes with Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez among those still left on the subject of the bench for the entire 90 minutes.
"I will arrive well in Budapest through rotating," added Guardiola, who offers made a good Premier League high 94 improvements to his line-ups this year.
"Sometimes the players don't trust me, I want everyone involved. It is sometimes difficult but everyone has to generate a contribution to gain games and we'll arrive at the finish of the growing season fighting as very best as possible."
Despite still sitting in the bottom three, Fulham have been on an impressive set you back haul themselves back to contention for survival, including a good stunning 1-0 win away to Liverpool last weekend.
Scott Parker's guys proved stubborn opponents again for the first of all 45 minutes, but were architects of their own downfall in the next period.
"We conceded silly goals found in the second one half," said Parker. "The 1st one from a set-piece is too easy and then the various other two are mistakes."
All Fulham's good do the job was blown away inside first two minutes of the second-half as Stones opened up the floodgates by latching onto Joao Cancelo's free-kick for a straightforward finish.
Fulham opened themselves up for the next as being Joachim Andersen's clearance ricocheted off teammate Ivan Cavaleiro in to the course of Jesus, who coolly rounded Alphonse Areola before blasting into a clear net.
Aguero's appearances have already been restricted this year by injuries and assessment positive for coronavirus.
City's all-time top scorer hadn't netted found in the Premier League since January 2020, but when Ferran Torres was felled inside the package by Tosin Adarabioyo, the Argentine quickly grabbed the ball.
Failure to score from the location has been among City's handful of weaknesses this year, but restored to penalty duty, Aguero made zero mistake.
"For him score an objective is everything," said Guardiola.
A three-goal lead allowed Guardiola to withdraw Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias early ahead of the trip to Budapest.
Already holding a 2-0 primary leg lead, a fourth consecutive quarter-final should be a formality, but claiming the club's 1st ever European crown is the one little bit of unfinished business for Guardiola since arriving on Manchester five years ago.
There is little doubt, though, that the City boss will soon be able to put in a third Premier League title to his hat-trick of La Liga and Bundesliga wins with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
