MANCHESTER City ramped up the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal by strolling to a 3-0 win over Fulham on Wednesday to cut the gap at the top to three points.
Pep Guardiola has sought solutions to his side’s second-half slumps that have cost them precious points in the title race.
But City had the job done by half-time as three goals in 15 first-half minutes from Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly, and Erling Haaland secured a 20th consecutive win over Fulham in all competitions.
Arsenal can stretch their lead back to six points when they visit in-form Brentford on Thursday.
But the Gunners’ advantage has reduced from nine points to three in four days to give City hope of denying them a first league title in 22 years.
City had to build on the momentum of a dramatic late fightback to beat Liverpool 2-1 for a rare win at Anfield on Sunday.
The January signings of Semenyo and Marc Guehi have added firepower up front and steel at the back to reignite City’s title charge.
Semenyo swooped for his fifth goal since joining from Bournemouth after Sander Berge inadvertently turned Matheus Nunes’ cross towards his own goal.
The Ghana international then turned provider for O’Reilly to coolly chip over Bernd Leno at the end of a lightning counter-attack.
Haaland kept his cool to score from the penalty spot in stoppage time for City’s first win at Anfield in front of a crowd since 2003 on Sunday.
But the Norwegian said he had to improve after netting just once from open play in his previous 13 matches.
Haaland scored his first non-penalty Premier League goal since December 20 when he drilled into the bottom corner from outside the box on 39 minutes.
Guardiola then took the chance to hand Haaland a rare rest from the second period as he was replaced by Omar Marmoush.
Fulham nearly came from 5-1 down in a 5-4 thriller when the sides last met in December.
City again failed to maintain their first-half intensity in the second period, but this time without any consequence as they laid down the gauntlet to Arsenal.