By Robert Morris
A brace from Carlos Tevez and two further goals from Yaya Toure and Pablo Zabaleta secured a vital 4-1 win against former City boss Mark Hughes at Craven Cottage.
Roberto Mancini has received a lot of stick in the British press of late regarding his team’s inability to score goals, however, one would be hard pushed to criticise his side, as City looked almost unstoppable on Sunday afternoon.
Argentine legend Diego Maradona was in attendance for the match, and it wasn’t long until he had something to shout about when Tevez struck home a composed finished after receiving a pass from Gareth Barry inside the box. Replays had shown that the striker was just offside, however, the goal was given.
City began to dominate the game and show wonderful flair in the process. On the half-hour mark they went 0-2 up when fellow Argentine Zabaleta fired home a terrific sliced shot from 20 yards out. Three minutes later and it was beginning to turn into a nightmare for Mark Hughes. A delightful pass from David Silva found Yaya Toure to place a low shot into the bottom-left corner. 0-3.
After the break, the blues continued the pressure and found a fourth in the 56th minute. Zabaleta’s powerful shot from outside the box caught Tevez on the way through; nicking off his ankle to beat Mark Schwarzer and into the net.
Fulham grabbed a consolation goal in the 70th minute from Zoltan Gera, however, by then it was too little, too late.
An impressive performance from City, and should they play like that week in, week out then they may just lift the Premier League trophy come the end of the season.
