Manchester City killed Fulham in two different ways to return to the top of the Premier League table.
Having failed to score in the first half of their last three league games, Pep Guardiola's side hunted the ball from the first whistle at Craven Cottage and were rewarded when Timothy Fosu-Mensah passed the ball straight to Kevin De Bruyne in the fifth minute of the game. The Belgian duly fed Sergio Aguero, who gave it to Bernardo Silva, who arrowed a ball past Sergio Rico into the far corner.
City have made early goals a hallmark of their 2019 renaissance in the title race, and with supporters still singing his name in the background Bernardo explained after the game how much work the manager puts into making sure his team start well.
"A lot, it's one of the most important things in football," he said.
"When you start games strong with an instant impact the opponent feels your presence and can't gain confidence to go and play their game so that's what we try to do. Sometimes it is difficult because our opponents sometimes defend very deep. The team was fantastic and a very important three points."
Pep Guardiola explains most pleasing aspect of Man City performance vs Fulham
Sergio Aguero doubled the lead inside the half-hour mark when another dreadful error - this time from Joe Bryan - gifted Bernardo the ball who returned the favour for Aguero to turn the screw on the relegation-threatened hosts.
If the first half was a flurry of action, the second period was more sleepy with City seemingly content to play out the win and Fulham unable to do anything about it.
Bernardo explained that while it looked like a stroll, it was a determined effort to squeeze the life out of the home side having punctured their defence twice.
"We always want to score more goals and score as many as possible but sometimes you slow the rhythm to control possession and don't lose as many balls and give the opponents chance to create and come after the game," he said. "That's what we tried to do in the second half, calm down the game and try and secure the three points as much as possible.
"You can't rest in games when you play for four titles. If you relax you take a risk of conceding two goals and lose two points here so it's not about relaxing but sometimes the game demands a high rhythm, sometimes the game demands a little bit of a lower rhythm. We try to see what the game demands and then try to do that."
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