Erling Haaland, Julian Alvarez send Manchester City to top of Premier League with battling win at Fulham

For the first time since mid-February, Manchester City are back at the top of Premier League. It is surely where they will conclude this season even if the fighting display of Fulham in their 2-1 defeat was a reminder that they will not often have it easy.

Still, when there are game-changers of Julian Alvarez’s quality in reserve it is hard to see what can stop City from a third straight title, a fifth in seven years. In just his eighth Premier League start, the Argentine international carried the day for the champions-elect, winning a penalty and delivering a strike sufficiently sublime to propel any team to the Premier League summit. 

Shorn of Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva, any other team might have struggled to click into gear, even against a Fulham side who had been sauntering their way towards the end of the season. Not City, however, who burst out of the traps thanks to the irrepressible Alvarez, the World Cup-winning forward who stands as a permanent reminder of the gaudy depth Pep Guardiola has at his disposal.

It is not just about having good players though. City’s parts are interchangeable, this was the fourth of five Premier League games that Alvarez and Erling Haaland have started together in which they have both scored. The former earned the latter the chance to score his 50th goal of this remarkable first season in England. Alvarez’s touch took him away from Tim Ream in the Fulham penalty area, a clip earning City a penalty and a third-minute lead.

City hadn’t let a Premier League team draw level after they took the lead since mid-February but they have faced few teams with the fighting spirit Fulham showed today. That was combined with real quality of the sort that saw Harry Wilson flick a long ball into the path of Carlos Vinicius, whose first-time volley left Ederson stranded. The Brazilian has struggled to plug the gap left by Aleksandar Mitrovic, whose eight-game suspension for confronting a referee does not expire until the trip to Southampton on May 13, but this was the sort of cutting-edge Fulham required.

Where others might have wobbled, Manchester City continued to probe. Before the half was out they were back in the ascendancy, Alvarez somehow turning a scrum of three Fulham players around him into space to arc a shot over Bernd Leno and into the top right. The German in the home goal had no chance of getting near that; any time he did have a chance he saved with authority, blocking strikes from Alvarez, Haaland and Rodri.

Leno’s excellence gave Fulham hope, as did defending from Ruben Dias and Ederson that verged on the calamitous before the City goalkeeper thrust a paw on the ball as Carlos Vinicius looked to strike. Bobby Decordova-Reid was convinced he had a penalty after grappling with Kyle Walker. Both Simon Hooper and his VAR concluded that the forward had gone down too easily.

City held firm, never really facing any late barrage of pressure, and now find themselves a point clear of Arsenal with a game in hand. The Gunners could retake top spot with a win over Chelsea on Tuesday but they will surely just be delaying the inevitable.