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On paper, Manchester City hosting Fulham didn’t seem like soccer match worth planning your weekend around. When you’ve got the reigning champions meeting a newly promoted side, it’s easy to assume we’ll see little more than a walk-over. In reality, though, we got quite a bit of drama.

Erling Haaland started on the bench for City, and Aleksandar Mitrovic wasn’t fit to play for Fulham. While that would seem to affect the visitors more — they simply don’t have the depth of the defending champs — it didn’t look like much of a problem.

Although Pep Guardiola’s squad jumped out to an early lead through Julian Alvarez, things changed in the 26th minute. Joao Cancelo received a red card for a denial of a goal-scoring oppertunity, and Fulham scored the ensuing penalty kick to tie the score at 1-1.

From there on, City huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the Cottagers down. Erling Haaland came on as a sub, though, and appeared to have made the difference, but his go-ahead goal was chalked off after a video review.

In the end, though, the Norwegian striker did make all the difference. Kevin De Bruyne went down under a challenge from Antonee Robinson, and Haaland stepped up to take the penalty kick. Fulham goaltender Bernd Leno got a hand to the shot but couldn’t hold it, and Manchester City secured what was essentially a walk-off win.

Was this a performance that shows the defending champions’ collective grit and ability to win when things don’t go according to plan? Or did it show that City aren’t as dominant as they once were.

You can be the judge of that, but the blue side of Manchester won’t care today.

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Senior Writer, Programmer

Joe Kozlowski

Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he’s a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie.

Growing up loving Shaquille O’Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he’s continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives.

As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He’s barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe’s big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level.

Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.