Pep Guardiola joked that his players "don't respect" him after Manchester City's 5-4 win over Fulham on Tuesday evening. It was a tale of two halves at Craven Cottage on the night, which could have easily gone in the host's favour.
While City went into the break 3-1 up thanks to goals from Erling Haaland, Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden cancelling out Emile Smith Rowe's effort, a second-half resurgence from Marco Silva's side almost saw the south London outfit tip the match on its head.
Foden bagged his brace early after the break, before a Sander Berge own goal off the back of Jeremy Doku's strike looked to put the game out of reach. Down but not out, however, a goal from Alex Iwobi and a late double from Samuel Chukwueze allowed Fulham to claw their way back in, before posing a serious threat of levelling matters or even pinching all three points in the dying stages of the fixture.
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Fate had other plans, as City defended relentlessly to secure a vital win on the banks of the Thames, closing the gap on league leaders Arsenal to just two points - albeit, the Gunners are yet to play their fixture against Brentford for Gameweek 14 of the Premier League.
Despite watching Fulham almost snub out City's efforts on the night from the side-lines, Guardiola appeared playful in his post-match interview with Match of the Day. Joking about his side, he said: "I'm so old, and the players don't respect me!
"They don't have to treat their manager in that way. It only happens in this league. We played a fantastic game...Listen, there were some really positive things in what we have done.
"To come here, to score five goals, and the way we played in that first-half. In the end, it was a question of character, resilience and defence. They did what they had to do."
When probed on Fulham's chances of a comeback, meanwhile, he added: "Of course, I was concerned. But this will help us in future games. Every game is a new team for some players. You have to make a process to start to correct."
Silva, meanwhile, was impressed by his team's grit and determination against the odds. He explained: "If you talk about character, of course what they showed was impressive.
"Normally if you're losing with a heavy score, home or away, against a side like City, many things can come in the mind. After the fifth City goal, you want to react but can be thinking the damage is there and it's better not to take risks and make things worse. The reaction was unbelievable from the boys, the fans too, and from it we probably deserved the fifth goal."
Elsewhere, Haaland dubbed the fixture a "crazy game" after scoring his 100th Premier League goal, as he slowly closes in on Alan Shearer's impressive record tally of 260. He told Sky Sports: "I think if you're sitting at home now you enjoyed that game.
"It was a crazy game, nine goals is a lot. In the end, we win and we're happy but it's not the best win."
On scoring his 100th Premier League goal, he added: "It's huge and I'm really proud. Of course it's a massive thing, 100 club is a nice thing to be in and I'm happy.
"I knew about it, that's what I tried to do. I try to help the team scoring goals, that's my job. Every game is a different game, you can't think of the game that's been you need to focus on what's ahead. The reality is we lost against Newcastle and Leverkusen but now we have two in a row and we have to keep going."
Up next for City is a home clash with Sunderland AFC come Saturday, December 6, as the Sky Blues look to close the gap further on Arsenal.
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