Manchester City Sleepwalks through a 3-0 Thrashing of Fulham

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was livid after this match.

The implication was, yes, his Citizens played rings around outclassed Fulham to the tune of a 3-0 result.

But damn, this was Fulham. At the Etihad.

It's almost as if dude was hinting that the Cottagers should've hit the pitch wearing pylon-orange shirts, and City still kept misfiring.

 

In the cold light of harsh reality, Guardiola had a point.

Sure, it's tough to get up for every match, especially when the result is all but a foregone conclusion. However, there's still an expectation of professional performance to -- at the very least -- justify the prices spectators paid to watch them.

It didn't start out that way. After only two minutes, Fernandinho stole the ball and crossed from the left-wing to Leroy Sané, who was left with a simple tap-in:

 

Fulham tried to play fearlessly, but it was in vain. They were outta this one from the kickoff.

Underscoring both that and Guardiola's points, in only the 15th minute, Raheem Sterling pounded a shot that was a perfect strike right on the post. It was a sign that laissez-faire was creeping into City's game. That shoult should've been a sitter.

 

Kinda like that, only done by a dude making lots more dosh.

Six minutes later, though, David Silva doubled the lead after a low Bernardo Silva cross from the right. However, it was supposed to find Sergio Agüero, but the Argentine’s effort was blocked. Silva was in the right place at the right time, not by plan but by accident.

The goal still counted, of course:

 

Amidst another flurry of lazy passes and sloppy shots, City managed to touch twine one more time.

It came in the the 47th, when Agüero’s cross from the right found Sterling to ice the game:

 

 

André Schürrle and Aleksandar Mitrović had their chances for Fulham, but their efforts from long-range went wide of Ederson's post. 

 

As to Guardiola after the full 90 ...

 

This was not a good look for City going into their first Champion's League match with Lyon.

For their sake, maybe Fulham was just a trap game.