With a hard-fought 3-2 victory, the hosts maintained pressure on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, mainly because of their Croatian midfielder.

Mateo Kovacic and Jeremy Doku both scored goals as Manchester City overcame a goal behind to defeat Fulham, ensuring Pep Guardiola’s team cut the deficit at the top to just one point.

Ederson denied Adama Traore as he sprinted clear one-on-one, giving City an early warning of Fulham’s threat. But in the 26th minute, Raul Jimenez, found by Alex Iwobi in the area, delivered a beautiful back-heel flick into the six-yard box, which Andreas Pereira pounced upon to score, giving Marco Silva’s team a surprising lead.

When the visitors broke with three players on two, Traore should have made it 2-0, but his close-range effort went over the crossbar. And when Kovacic swung the tide of the match with two goals each side of halftime, City made their opponents pay. In the 32nd minute, the midfielder from Croatia struck the net after a wayward ball found its way in from a corner. Shortly after the break, he added another goal with a superb finish that beat Bernd Leno.

Fulham made an effort to draw even, but their hopes were dashed in the 82nd minute when Doku scored a spectacular goal into the top corner to complete the victory. Very late in the game, Rodrigo Muniz offered the London team a ray of hope, but they were unable to get a third.

While Traore wasted another opportunity to score in a one-on-one in the second half, this was far from a flawless City effort. Still, they managed to earn all three points before the international break.