For this week’s Match from the Past, we look back at City’s title winning season and a vital match at home to Fulham. The blues sat six points behind leaders Chelsea and two behind Liverpool, who had beaten Arsenal 6-0 and Cardiff 6-3 respectively. The blues could afford no slip-ups against The Cottagers, but were without Vincent Kompany or Sergio Aguero in their line up.
The blues suffered a scare when a shot by Kieran Richardson flew just wide, three minutes before City took the lead in fortuitous circumstances. Alvaro Negredo was clipped in the box but the referee was only alerted to the foul by his assistant and pointed to the spot. It gave Yaya Toure a chance to give City the lead, which he took to send the blues in 1-0 up at the break.
In the second half, the same defender hacked down David Silva eight minutes into the second half to concede a second penalty and also receive his marching orders. For a second time, it was down to Toure and again he made no mistake from the spot. 2-0 up and facing ten men, the rest of the match was comfortable.
On 65 minutes, Toure completed his hat-trick, curling in following a City free kick. The blues were on target to keep the pace with the leaders and continued to press the shattered visitors. City won a corner six minutes from time and Fernandinho burst into the box to crash home number four. City’s day, and Fulham’s misery was completed two minutes from time when Martin Demichelis bundled home his first goal for the blues to complete a 5-0 win.
The result kept the blues in touch with the leaders, but crucially City had two games in hand on Liverpool and three on Chelsea, with a superior goal difference.
Result – Man City 5-0 Fulham
Line-ups:
City: Hart, Zabaleta, Kolarov, Toure (Rodwell 77), Demichelis, Lescott, Milner, Fernandinho, Negredo, Nasri (Jovetic 82), Silva (Navas 68).
Fulham: Stockdale, Heitinga, Riise, Riether, Hangeland, Amorebieta, Kvist, Sidwell, Woodrow (Kasami 84), Kacaniklic (Roberts 55), Richardson (Holtby 55)
Referee: Jon Moss
Attendance: 47,262