Manchester City edge past Fulham after Jérémy Doku adds Kovacic's brace | Premier League

In these early days without Rodri, Manchester City lack the stranglehold that the incomparable number 6 provides, so Pep Guardiola, as promised, is finding solutions. This time Mateo Kovacic scored two goals, acting in the Spaniard's place, equalizing his tally from last season with an equalizer and then City's second goal.

But the champions are far more open, as Andreas Pereira's opener and Rodrigo Muniz's finish for Fulham in the 88th minute showed, as well as other passages, such as in the second half when their keepball ended with Josko Gvardiol throwing himself to the ground Raúl blocks Jiménez's attempt from near the penalty spot.

Muniz's goal also came when City was played through. Emile Smith Rowe passed directly to Reiss Nelson, who passed the ball to the Brazilian and he made no mistake.

And while Jérémy Doku's clever shoulder jump and movement inwards to the right to allow a powerful right-footed finish proved crucial, City's discomfort was reflected in the fact that the fight ended with them essentially holding on and Ederson came into play with the book for slow play and his manager followed him for his subsequent sarcastic applause.

The early menu consisted of a plethora of city options. Ilkay Gündogan pushed Erling Haaland in, but Bernd Leno parried the shot. Gündogan ran through, but his attempt to steer with his left boot went wrong. Haaland did the same – he missed on the right. Rico Lewis was knocked over by Sasa Lukic, Bernardo Silva prevented City's draft in the Fulham wall and Haaland lobbed the free-kick into him. Ouch.

From here on, City lost the plot. Kovacic, Jack Grealish and Lewis were all clumsy, with the latter particularly wayward as he allowed Adama Traoré's blistering pace to go the wrong way. Suddenly the number 11 shot and although Ederson guessed wrong, his legs saved his team.

It might be easy to point this all to Rodri's absence, but more compelling evidence came from Pereira's finishing. Firstly, it could well be that the Spaniard's subtle link-up play enabled City to shift the opposition and thus prevent Fulham from gaining possession. Secondly, he would certainly have prevented Marco Silva's team from pushing to the left and switching to the right. Instead, the impressive Alex Iwobi backheeled a wonderful cross and Pereira volleyed in.

A carbon cop almost followed him. Another bad pass from Grealish allowed Jiménez to feed Pereira. The number 18 sprinted 60 yards down the right and found Iwobi, who set up Traoré in front of goal; but as Ederson advanced, the No. 11 punted over.

In the technical zone, Silva couldn't believe the missed shot. His side soon paid up. After moving offside, City challenged for a corner from which the ball fell to Kovacic. His instant strike splashed off the leg of Joachim Andersen, wrong-footing Leno, and the score was 1-1.

Before the second half, Guardiola gave his players a final warning in the tunnel and seconds later Kovacic scored again. Grealish passed to Foden on the left and he chipped to Silva, whose chest-and-pass to the Croatian was as ruthless as his swing with the right boot that beat Leno left.

After an hour, City made a double change: Grealish and Manuel Akanji left, Doku and Kyle Walker came on. Lewis, preferred in the eleven instead of the captain, remained at right-back and Walker took Akanji's central defensive spot. In terms of balance, grace and technical mastery, Lewis is the blueprint of the Guardiola footballer: all of these qualities were used in the thorax control of the ball and volley that Leno might have beaten had Haaland not struck.

Walker's game focuses on his renowned pace, but he couldn't stop Traoré from racing away before once again lacking the deadly look to beat Ederson. Muniz reduced the deficit, but at the final whistle Traoré and his teammates regretted their missed shots.