Pep Guardiola admitted he found it “impossible” to enjoy Manchester City’s 5-4 victory at Fulham, despite the result moving his side to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal. City led 5-1 after 54 minutes at Craven Cottage, only for Fulham to mount a remarkable fightback, scoring three goals in 21 minutes. Samuel Chukwueze, on loan from Villarreal, scored twice after coming on at half-time to almost inspire an improbable comeback, but City held on for the win.
“Did you enjoy it? I lost my hair,” Guardiola said. “I thought the players were happy to work with me … it’s the Premier League. I know you’re going to ask what happened but I don’t have an answer. Football is emotion – all the goals were bad defending, we go so deep to defend these kinds of crosses, we have to occupy the spaces a bit better but we made incredible things today because I know how difficult the team is.”
Guardiola added: “It was impossible for me to enjoy it. At 5-1 maybe, but at 5-4 I was watching the clock more than the game. It was tough and it would have been tougher if we could not get the result, but I will remember I was there. At 5-1 you [the media] thought it was finished. You had written your articles. Tomorrow: ‘Manchester City are back … finally.’ And after, to the trash. You have to start again.”
Erling Haaland opened the scoring for City after 17 minutes, becoming the fastest player to reach 100 goals in Premier League history. Guardiola praised the Norway striker: “For people up front it’s a question of numbers, and his numbers have no discussion. When he arrived, if you told me he would score 100 in 111 games I would say are you sure? In this league? And he did it. The milestones are insane.”
Fulham manager Marco Silva was critical of his side’s slow start but praised their character. “We have to do each match better quicker,” he said. “We didn’t and, of course, they punished us.”
