13/02/2026

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FRIDAY

FEB 13, 2026

TOP: Man City’s Antoine Semenyo (left) celebrates after scoring the opening goal with Nico O’Reilly during yesterday’s English Premier League match against Fulham at the Etihad Stadium. – AFPPIC BOTTOM: Man City’s Erling Haaland (left) celebrates scoring the third goal with Phil Foden. – REUTERSPIC

City on the charge Guardiola’s Cityzens coast to close gap on Arsenal while resting Haaland for second half

M ANCHESTER CITY ramped up the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal by strolling to a 3 0 win over Fulham yesterday to cut the gap at the top to three points. Pep Guardiola has sought solutions to his side’s second-half slumps that have cost them precious points in the title race. But City had the job done by half-time as three goals in 15 first-half minutes from Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly and Erling Haaland secured a 20th consecutive win over Fulham in all competitions. Arsenal can stretch their lead back to six points when they visit in-form Brentford over night. But the Gunners’ advantage has reduced from nine points to three in four days to give City hope of denying them a first League title in 22 years. City had to build on the momentum of a dramatic late fightback to beat Liverpool 2-1 for a rare win at Anfield on Sunday. The January signings of Semenyo and Marc Guehi have added firepower up front and steel at the back to reignite City’s title charge. Semenyo swooped for his fifth goal since joining from Bournemouth after Sander Berge inadvertently turned Matheus Nunes’ cross towards his own goal. The Ghana international then turned pro vider for O’Reilly to coolly chip over Bernd Leno at the end of a lightning counter-attack. Haaland kept his cool to score from the penalty spot in stoppage time for City’s first win at Anfield in front of a crowd since 2003 on Sunday. But the Norwegian said he had to improve

Semenyo scored his fifth goal in eight games for City to get things started before tee ing up the excellent O’Reilly to get the second in another fine performance from the January signing. “He has incredible skills and he is so open minded and generous in the effort,“ Guardiola said of the Ghana winger. “He has an incredi ble sense of goal for the chaos of second goals. Really good.” Guardiola was not getting drawn into title talk at this stage of the season, saying: “We were not nine points (adrift) before Anfield, we are not three points (adrift) before Brentford vs Arsenal, after that we will see. “I always say the focus is to grow, grow, grow. It’s how we can be more consistent over 90 minutes, how we can be better and the players feel that (they are) doing what we want to do. “’We can do it in terms of mentality and patterns defensively and offensively. We are doing that.” The result at Anfield appears to have given City and Guardiola renewed belief that they are capable of chasing down Arsenal, despite not being at their rampant best this season. Former Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given told BBC Radio Live : “There are still fra gilities we haven’t seen in the past perhaps, but they still have the armoury I think to go on a crazy run now and be unbeaten.” Ex-England striker Alan Shearer added on BBC Match of the Day : “I don’t think it would surprise many people if they went on a run. Particularly after the game at the weekend, you could see they were full of confidence, belief and energy.”

off as a precaution having complained of dis comfort after yesterday’s goal moved him level with Colin Bell in the club’s scoring charts. “Niggles,“ Guardiola said when asked why Haaland was withdrawn. “Some problems, he feels uncomfortable. It was 3-0 of course. The reason why? Many games... “I didn’t speak with the doctors, I don’t know exactly what he has. Just fatigue or something.”

after netting just once from open play in his previous 13 matches. Haaland scored his first non-penalty Premier League goal since Dec 20 when he drilled into the bottom corner from outside the box on 39 minutes. Guardiola then took the chance to hand Haaland a rare rest from the second period as he was replaced by Omar Marmoush. The City boss revealed Haaland was taken

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