Record Shatters in Fulham vs. Manchester City Clash | OneFootball

Fulham 4 – 5 Manchester City

The scoreline kinda says it all. There is so much to say about this one. So let’s begin at the beginning.

A Record Goal…

Erling Haaland, chasing his 100th Premier League goal, struck the post in the 5th minute. Casting a rueful grimace to the sky, you had to wonder whether it would be one of those days for the Norwegian. The match announcer almost gleefully teased: “it’s been 240 minutes since his last goal. What a crisis!”

Twelve minutes later, however, Haaland took a Jérémy Doku cross onto that lethal left foot and made history. One hundred goals in one hundred and one matches. The fastest to ever score a century.

Fun fact: the previous record for British soccer was held by John “Jock” Campbell, who scored 100 goals in 102 appearances back in 1894 whilst playing for Celtic. In English top-flight soccer, it was Arsenal’s Ted Drake who did in 117 games back in 1935.

…And Then the Rest

Haaland then delivered a perfectly weighted pass to Tijjani Reijnders, who made it 2 – 0. When Phil Foden hit a peach of a strike for City’s third in the 41st, it didn’t look good for the Cottagers. But Emile Smith-Rowe’s diving header before the half sparked some hope in the home side.

That hope was sorely tested as City came out of the dressing room and put in two more before the 55th minute (another Foden hit and a Sønder Berge own goal). Even the most die-hard Fulham fan had to think it was over.

But it’s not called the beautiful game for nothing. Fulham dug deep, continued to press Manchester City, and found the visitors wanting. A goal from Alex Iwobi, and a brace from substitute Samuel Chukwuese in seven minutes closed the gap to a single goal with eleven minutes in regulation. Try as they might, Fulham couldn’t find that equalizer.

To put this game in perspective, only six Premier League matches have had more goals than this one.