Key events
Fulham’s home record against Manchester City: Arsenal fans who are hoping Fulham can do their team a favour by taking points off City today will be disappointed to learn that their record against the champions at home is pretty dismal.
In 15 Premier League games at Craven Cottage, Fulham have won just once – a 2-1 in November 2005, when both the home side’s goals were scored by Steed Malbranque. Fulham have drawn five times against City at the Cottage since football was invented in 1992 and lost on nine occasions.
Erling Haaland: The Manchester City striker has claimed that none of his critics mention how many touches he has made if he scores, with the Norwegian saying that even if he netted nine goals in a game, 10 would be his target. Jamie Jackson reports.
Today’s match officials
Those teams: Both managers make one change each to the teams they sent out last weekend. Marco Silva brings in midfielder Bobby De Cordova-Reid for the injured Sasa Lukic, while Pep Guardiola has dropped Kyle Walker to the bench and picked Ruben Dias ahead of the England left-back. Phil Foden makes his 50th appearance of the season in all competitions and his 300th overall for club and country.
Fulham v Manchester City line-ups
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Diop, Bassey, Robinson, Iwobi, Joao Palhinha, De Cordova-Reid, Andreas Pereira, Willian, Rodrigo Muniz.
Subs: Rodak, Tete, Reed, Jimenez, Wilson, Broja, Cairney, Traore, Ream.
Manchester City: Ederson, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol, Rodri, Kovacic, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Foden, Haaland.
Subs: Walker, Stones, Doku, Ortega, Alvarez, Gomez, Matheus Luiz, Bobb, Lewis.
Is this a real Premier League title race?
Comment: Intrigue, mind games and a credible chance of Manchester City slipping up are all missing from this supposedly epic battle for the Premier League title, writes Jonathan Liew.
Early team news
Fulham are without their Serbian midfielder Sasa Lukic, who has been ruled out of today’s game with a calf injury, while central defender Tosin Aderabioyo has been dropped for the last two games after announcing he will be leaving the club when his contract expires at the end of next month.
Pep Guardiola has a fully fit squad to choose from and may well field the same side that routed Wolves last weekend. Of course with Pep being Pep, there’s every chance he could field a completely different one. We’ll find out soon enough.
Premier League: Fulham v Manchester City
Hoping to leapfrog Arsenal and go to points clear at the Premier League summit, Manchester City travel to Craven Cottage for today’s lunchtime kick-off. With victory in the title race in their own hands, Pep Guardiola’s team seem unlikely to blink against a team whose record against them is dismal, particularly now that Erling Haaland is back in form after his recent one-game goal drought against Real Madrid. The Norwegian striker has scored five goals in his last two games.
Fulham have taken some notable scalps this season, beating Tottenham, Brighton, Manchester United and Arsenal, among others but lost the corresponding fixture at the Etihad Stadium 5-1 in September. Haaland scored a hat-trick in that particular City win and will back himself to be among the goals again on a sunny afternoon in west London. Kick-off at Craven Cottage is at 12.30pm (BST) but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up.
