Manchester City will leapfrog leaders Arsenal if they manage to beat Fulham at Craven Cottage in today’s lunchtime kick-off in the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola’s side start the afternoon a single point and and one place behind Arsenal, who play tomorrow afternoon at Manchester United. Reigning champions Manchester City, however, have a game in hand over Arsenal, which is away at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night. Guardiola has no fresh injury concerns to worry about.
“No injury worries. Everyone is fine,” the Spaniard said in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “I don’t know what other clubs do, but for many years we’ve had an incredible medical department here.
“Doing the same thing could be maybe the opposite, but we were fortunate last season too we had few injuries.”
Marco Silva braced his Fulham players to face a team “like no other team in the world” when they host City.
Fulham, who are 13th, have enjoyed another solid campaign in their second season since promotion to the top flight, one in which they have improved their record against the division’s top sides.
Last season, despite finishing 10th, they recorded only four wins against teams that finished above them and none at all against those in the top five.
This campaign has seen more success against sides placed higher with eight victories so far, including at home to Arsenal and Tottenham, away at Manchester United and a league double over West Ham.
“Last season, even in that amazing season from ourselves, I was questioned many times – and probably fair enough – about us being good against the teams under ourselves [in the league],” said Silva.
“Against the teams above ourselves, we just won one, against the top sides we hadn’t won, all that stuff. I think this season we gave some steps in this aspect, we have been really tough to play against.
“Even last season we were, but we didn’t achieve the results. This season it’s been different, we have been achieving some great results with some great performances against the top sides of this Premier League.
“And it is a great challenge again because [Manchester City[ is a team that demands many, many things from you, it’s a team that probably like no other team in the world has the capacity to have the ball and to keep the possession and frustrate the opposition side with the possession that they have.”
Silva’s team were thrashed 5-1 by City when the teams met at the Etihad Stadium in September but competed well in the first half and were unfortunate to trail 2-1 at the break, falling behind to a Nathan Ake goal in the fifth minute of added time.
City overpowered them after the interval with Erling Haaland scoring a second-half hat-trick, but have recovered to put in strong showings against teams in the top half of the table.
And having run the champions close in a narrow 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage last season, Silva called for his side to be similarly competitive on Saturday.
“They are the champions, they want to be champions again and are in a big fight with Arsenal to achieve it,” he said.
“Great season for both sides, but it’s not for us to talk about that race. We talk about ourselves and we are going to fight for the result and prepare ourselves for it.
“Last season at the Cottage was a really good game from ourselves, but unfortunately we haven’t got what we probably deserved in that game. That’s all it is. Let’s try to improve for the next one.”
Team news to follow shortly.
