Manchester City’s John Stones celebrates scoring their first goal against Fulham at Craven Cottage, London, March 13, 2021. — Reuters picLONDON, Mar 14 — Manchester City showed their strength in depth as a much-changed side by Pep Guardiola won 3-0 at Fulham yesterday to stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League to 17 points.
“The dynamic of the season is good,” said Guardiola. “The second-half was so important. It is an important victory for us and we are closer.”Ahead of their return to Champions League action against Borussia Monchengladbach in Budapest on Tuesday, the Catalan coach made seven changes with Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez among those left on the bench for the full 90 minutes.
Despite still sitting in the bottom three, Fulham had been on an impressive run to haul themselves back into contention for survival, including a stunning 1-0 win away to Liverpool last weekend. All Fulham’s good work was blown away inside the first two minutes of the second-half as Stones opened the floodgates by latching onto Joao Cancelo’s free-kick for a simple finish.
City’s all-time top scorer had not netted in the Premier League since January 2020, but when Ferran Torres was felled inside the box by Tosin Adarabioyo, the Argentine quickly grabbed the ball.