Manchester City have recorded a morale boosting 3-0 win over Fulham to close the gap on leaders Arsenal in the fight for the Premier League title.
New signing, Antonie Semenyo, scored and assisted for another goal after which Erling Haaland scored the third to help the Mancunians edge over Fulham in their bid for another triumph in the league they won two seasons ago.
After begining the game six points adrift of Arsenal, City scored thrice in 15 first half minutes at the game held at the Etihad on Wednesday, the first coming after Sander Berge miscued a clearing header into the path of Ghanaian Semenyo who poked in from close range for his fifth goal in eight games since signing for City
The January signee then turned provider just six minutes later, after he slid a pass onto the run of Nico O’Reilly who doubled the lead with a deft finish over the advancing Bernd Leno.
The mauling continued, this time from Haaland, who drilled home an unerring finish low into the bottom corner to condemn the Cottagers to their third defeat on the bounce.
Marco Silva’s side will be ruing a missed opportunity by midfielder Harry Wilson, whose low strike at 1-0 down was batted away by Gianluigi Donnarumma, allowing City to punish them and maintain their title challenge.
Man City will now wait for the result of Arsenal’s game away at Sunderland on Thursday to ascertain if the points difference will remain on tree points or will be back to six behind the north London club.
Other matches played on Wednesday saw Liverpool condemning Sunderland to their first home loss in the league this campaign after a 1-0 win over them.
Defender, Virgil Van Dirk, scored the only goal to help the Northeast club continue their chase for at least the top four for next season’s Champions League.
Van Dirk headed home from Mohammed Salah’s corner just after the hour mark to help the Kop get all three points to move two points behind Chelsea, in sixth.
In another Wednesday game, Aston Villa held on to their third position after a late goal by defender, Tyrone Mings, to maintain a close distance to Man City and Arsenal who are second and first respectively.
Burnley came down from two goals down to equalize and win 3-2 in their quest to remain in the league come end of the season, while a relegation battle between Nottingham Forest and Wolves ended in stalemate.
