Erling Haaland marked his return with a late penalty to help Manchester City get a nervy win over visiting Fulham and once again return to the top of the Premier League table.
Julian Alvarez’s opener was cancelled out by an Andreas Pereira penalty in the first half before Haaland got the winner in the added time during the 2-1 win.
The hosts took little time in settling into their rhythm against Fulham testing Bernd Leno from the start with the German keeper needing to make smart saves against Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne to keep his side level.
Julián Álvarez finally opened the scoring in the 16th minute smashing home a Gundogan pass for his third league goal of the season.
City’s comfortable afternoon quickly unravelled when a fortuitous pass fell to Harry Wilson who was fouled by Joao Cancelo in the penalty area and the defender was sent off, as a result, leaving the home side with 10 men before Pereira sent Ederson the wrong way to equalise.
The hosts pushed hard for the winner but with time running out Pep Guardiola decided to bring on his goal machine Erling Haaland which changed the course of the game instantly.
He took little time to head the ball into the back of the net before his effort was ruled out for offside by VAR only for Antonee Robinson to trip De Bruyne in the box in the added time to hand City a penalty.
Haaland stepped up and managed to beat Leno from the spot to seal all three points for City with Fulham left to rue their chances.
Man City now once again leads the table ahead of Arsenal with 32 points with the Gunners having a game in hand.
