Player Ratings: Manchester City 3-2 Fulham

Fulham travelled up to Manchester for the hardest fixture all season on paper, and arguably should have come back with a point or more. An impressive team performance, but how did each player do individually?

Bernd Leno

Conceding three as a keeper is never a good look, but in fairness to Leno, the first was a deflection and the last was an absolute rocket from Jeremy Doku. A dodgy pass at the start of the game almost cost us, but other than that his distribution was acceptable, and he did have quite a lot of the ball. He made four saves as well, making it a satisfactory performance overall. 5.5/10

Antonee Robinson

Robbo had a hell of a lot to do today both attacking and defending, his link up with Traore on the left hand side helped create a lot of chances and it was clear that was our main threat going forward. Of course he also had to deal with Bernardo Silva which is no easy task but he managed to keep him quiet as well. 7.5/10

Calvin Bassey

Haaland up front and Foden just behind him? Not a problem for Bassey, his four blocks must be leaving his legs with battle scars but he threw himself at every shot he could and really fought for the badge today, even getting himself forward on one or two occasions including a drive down the left wing to deliver a cross for Iwobi near the edge of the box. Brilliant performance. 8/10 – Man of the match

Joachim Andersen

Another good performance from Joachim Andersen, once again providing his incredible ability in the air by winning three out of three aerial duels. He kept Haaland quiet so you can’t ask for much more in a game like this. 7.5/10

Kenny Tete

Kenny had a more central role in this game, as Iwobi dropped deep in almost a wing back position in order to help the back line deal with City’s wide array of attacking options. He performed well overall, continuing his impressive form at the start of the season and came off in the 77th minute. 7/10

Sander Berge 

It was a quiet first league start for Berge which lasted 65 minutes before he was substituted, he was beaten by Kovacic for City’s second but he is a player with quality and he will settle in with time, it was also good to see him start and have the team play so well overall as it gives us options with both him and Andreas able to play alongside Lukic depending on the opposition. 6/10

Sasa Lukic

Lukic progressed and kept the ball well completing 56/63 passes, he has stepped up to a new level this season filling in the void left by Palhinha and we’re seeing a very good level from him so far. That was replicated today despite it being against a side of City’s quality. 7/10

Andreas Pereira

Andreas was moved to his preferred number 10 role with Smith Rowe dropped to the bench, he had to take this chance as he has received a fair bit of criticism for his performances in the deeper role this season. And taking that chance is exactly what he did as he poked in our opener at The Etihad. He drifted to the right on occasions where Iwobi was further back allowing us to sit back and defend in parts of the game where it was required but still create on the counter attack. 7.5/10

Adama Traore

It will certainly be a tough one to take for Adama, after missing three huge chances, which could have got us a point or even three to bring back home, a lot may give him stick. But we have to remember no other player would be able to get into the positions that he can, and if he was consistently finishing those he would still be playing for a club like Barcelona. He has improved his end product this season and we hope that progress continues, we can’t let this game tint our views much. 6.5/10

Alex Iwobi

Iwobi played a much deeper role today and he excelled, he often found himself defending Grealish one on one but he managed to do enough to stop him with the backing of Tete, not only this but his quick passing and link up in attacking areas was great today and I think this was his best performance of the season so far. 8/10

Raul Jimenez 

Raul didn’t manage to score today, but he did the next best thing and got probably the best assist you’ll see all season when he flicked the ball over with the back of his heel to loop perfectly to an awaiting Andreas Pereira who opened the scoring. He created three big chances, impressing once again and was subbed off in the 77th minute. 7.5/10

Substitutes

Emile Smith Rowe (65’ for Andreas)

It was a surprise to not see ESR in the starting lineup before the game, but Marco Silva obviously had his tactical plans which seemed to work very well despite the poor result. Smith Rowe showed quality on the ball and linked up particularly well with Iwobi and Reiss Nelson, as you’d expect with their past experience together. However he didn’t produce anything spectacular for the short 30 minutes he was on the pitch. 6.5/10

Tom Cairney (65’ for Berge)

I thought TC was a different class when he came on, the best he’d played in a long time. He looked so comfortable on the ball and he was crucial in helping us get a hold of it while we needed to, his passing was pinpoint as well completing 34/36, with eight of those passes into the final third, and he was arguably our best player on the pitch for the last half hour. There wasn’t much more if anything he could have done to improve. 7.5/10

Rodrigo Muniz (77’ for Raul)

Muniz came on with 13 minutes of normal time left to play but he didn’t let that affect his performance, scoring a very well taken goal in the 88th minute, of course, it wasn’t enough in the end but he did his job by scoring and nearly rescued a point. 7/10

Reiss Nelson (77’ for Iwobi)

Reiss managed to make an impact by, as mentioned before, linking up really well down the right hand side, we all know by now what a bright spark he can be off the bench and he was exactly that today, getting an assist to his name as he set up Rodrigo Muniz. 7/10

Timothy Castagne (77’ for Tete)

It was difficult for Castagne to have any real impact on the game, he was getting forward to give us the extra numbers as we pushed to equalise but didn’t really do anything notable in the very short time he had. 6/10