Pep Guardiola got a valuable three points, and saw his Manchester City squad come through the win over Fulham unscathed, but he was still looking for more from his players.
City were 2-0 winners thanks to early goals from Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne, and were rarely troubled by Fulham, despite the visitors playing some nice football at times.
It was the first time City have recorded back-to-back wins in the Premier League this season, and they also kept a fourth straight clean sheet in a productive afternoon at the Etihad.
However, while the manager was pleased with his side for keeping up their recent run of form, he challenged his players to improve their finishing infront of goal.
"We struggled at the beginning of the season for many reasons," Guardiola told BBC Sport, reminding his forwards it is their job to finish chances.
"Now four games, four clean sheets. It's so important for us to maintain this solidity.
"The finishing was wasteful. We know we have to improve this, but it's important to keep creating the chances. In the last 20 minutes we lost too many simple balls, which is a problem. We have to do the simple things better. That is the next step.
"Sterling scored a goal and won a penalty. It's important for the players up front to be scoring goals."
The result moved City up to fourth in the Premier League table, albeit temporarily, and Guardiola predicted more tight games as the table takes shape going into the Christmas period, insisting nothing will be decided in December.
He explained: "This season looks like there will be a lot of teams in contention. Everyone can beat everyone. In this month it was important to get qualification for the Champions League, now we focus on the Premier League. It will be a long season."
