Fulham fightback denies City
Roberto Mancini’s side were cruising to victory here after another star showing by their three diminutive, lightning-fast attacking midfielders, in the shape of Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri.
Argentine Aguero had scored twice, becoming only the second player to score eight goals in his first five Premier League games, after the much-less heralded Micky Quinn.
City were in control, Fulham cementing their position at the bottom of the Premier League. But then the visitors switched off, thinking the game was done.
Bobby Zamora pulled one back with a wonderful finish, before Danny Murphy’s deflected strike ensured he will be as unpopular with City as he is on the other side of Manchester due to his past with Liverpool.
Mancini, laughably, blamed a lack of depth in his squad, claiming that the absence of Nigel De Jong and James Milner meant he could not make the changes he wished.
“If we had other players, probably we would make other changes,” said Mancini. “At this moment, we cannot do this. Do we not have enough players in our squad? We are lacking at this moment because we lost two midfielders.
“Fulham changed, I think, five or six players (in fact it was only four).
“I’m not angry. I’m just disappointed because we conceded two stupid goals. For 10-15 minutes, all the team should work better because there are some moments where all the players need to defend.
“For 10 minutes, we defended with five or six players. It is not good enough.
“At the moment, we are frustrated with this result but nothing has changed because it can happen.”
For Martin Jol, though, an element of vindication. The Dutchman had won all six of his previous games against City while manager of Tottenham, but here he was more than happy with a point — and although he refused to comment on it, his raised eyebrows when told about Mancini’s complaints about his side’s squad depth told their own story.
“To come back from the death is what we probably did, but we scored and we had to believe,” said the Dutchman.
“It was a fantastic achievement to come back against them. I am not sure if they will give away leads like this in the future.
“To be bottom of the table was awful. That was not a nice thing to see. Luckily enough for now we are 18th. It looks better.”
Yet it seemed certain in the first-half that Fulham would remain rooted to the bottom as they were out-thought and out-passed at every opportunity.
Like the cast in John le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, they knew one of Silva, Aguero or Nasri would do them in, yet they hadn’t the faintest idea which and even less of a clue as to how to stop them.
Eventually it was Aguero who stepped forward as City seemed destined to equal their best start to a top-flight season since 1912/13. The first goal was simplicity itself as Gareth Barry found Silva, who turned and played in Aguero to fire low past Mark Schwarzer.
Only the Australian’s acrobatics kept them in it, but 11 seconds after the restart it appeared the game had been put to bed when Aguero latched on to Edin Dzeko’s knockdown, took a couple of strides forward and smashed the ball beyond the goalkeeper.
Yet Fulham have only lost once at home in the Premier League in 2011, and as City took their foot off the gas they roared back. Zamora was, as ever, at the heart of their best moves, and he started the comeback, finishing superbly when given a yard of space in the opposition box as he left Joe Hart clutching at thin air from the edge of the area.
And parity was ensured when Murphy’s low effort took a wicked deflection off Vincent Kompany to find the bottom corner.
Both sides could have won it, but few would have guessed as Mancini raged on the touchline that he could have done with even more players in his bloated squad.
Ultimately, City’s investment means points are the only currency that matter.
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Schwarzer 7; Kelly 6, Baird 6, Hangeland 6, Riise 6; Murphy 5, Sidwell 5; Duff 6 (Kasami, 6; 60), Dempsey 5, Dembele 5 (Ruiz, 6,88); Zamora 8.
MAN CITY (4-2-3-1): Hart 7; Richards 6; Lescott 6, Kompany 6, Clichy 6, Y Toure 7; Barry 7, Nasri 7 (Johnson, 6;81), Silva 8 (Zabaleta, 6;69), Aguero 9 (Tevez, 6; 83); Dzeko 7.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg
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