Haaland and Alvarez take Manchester City above Arsenal

Manchester City took another giant step towards defending the Premier League title with a 2-1 win over Fulham on Saturday.

Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez scored the goals for City, who are now top but could lose their position should Arsenal beat Chelsea on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Citizens got off to a perfect start as they broke the deadlock in the third minute through Haaland’s penalty. Jack Grealish did well to lift the ball to Riyad Mahrez, who was in the box. The Algerian cut it back for Alvarez, who was brought down by Tim Ream’s clumsy challenge.

Haaland took over the penalty-taking duties, and although Bernd Leno dived the right way, he could not stop the ball from landing in the left-hand corner.

The goal meant that Haaland matched Andy Cole and Alan Shearer’s records for most goals in a Premier League season: 34.

Although the offside flag went up quite late, Leno pulled off a miraculous save to deny City the second in the ninth minute. It was another combination between Grealish and Mahrez via a flick-on from Alvarez. Mahrez smacked a shot on the angle, and Leno got down well to keep the ball away.

The home side equalized in the 15th minute through Carlos Vinicius. Andreas Perreira did well by playing a long ball into the box, and Harry Wilson nodded it down for Vinicius, and the Brazilian fired it past Ederson.

City almost grabbed the second in the 27th minute but were initially denied by the post. Grealish was in space with Haaland, who tried to bend into the far corner, but Leno tipped it onto the bar before Alvarez sent the rebound the wrong side of the post.

Alvarez finally found the back of the net in the 36th minute to help City regain the lead. The Argentine did well to shield the ball from Raphinha before he unleashed a brilliant shot past Leno into the top corner.

Perreira could not continue playing after a dangerous collision with Manuel Akanji. The two clashed heads as they vied for a bouncing ball outside Fulham’s box, and both went down for treatment.

As Perreira was stretchered off, Tom Cairney was introduced to fill his position.

Fulham’s call for a penalty was dismissed – and the VAR confirmed the dismissal - in the 68th minute. Cairney forced a ball to De Cordova-Reid, who went past John Stones, but it looked like he had his arms around Kyle Walker as he tried to get past the City defender to score.