(Football news) Manchester City needed a win to go back to the top of the table and that is exactly what they did. Pep Guardiola made 3 changes to the starting line-up that defeated Fulham. Nathan Ake returned from his injury to replace Manuel Akanji while Bernardo Silva came back in for Ilkay Gundogan.

Pep Guardiola made a surprising call by giving Ederson a break as Stefan Ortega started between the sticks. David Moyes benched Said Benrahma and Maxwell Cornett as left back Emerson started at left wing. Michail Antonio started ahead of Danny Ings as striker while club captain Declan Rice was unavailable due to illness. 

West Ham defended very well in the first half as Manchester City and were left frustrated. Lukasz Fabianski made a couple of decent saves to keep the score at 0-0. The 2nd half was a completely different story as Nathan Ake scored from Riyad Mahrez’s free-kick 5 minutes after the restart.

Erling Haaland finally got his goal in the 70th minute after being set up by Jack Grealish. The goal was Haaland’s 35th in the Premier League which takes him past Andy Cole and Alan Shearer in the list of most goals in a single Premier League season. What’s more impressive is that the other two had gotten their goals in 42-game seasons and Haaland still has 5 league games left to play.

Substitute Phil Foden added another goal to secure the 3 points for Manchester City. The goal was the 1000th goal scored by the Blues under Pep Guardiola and it has come in just 404 games. The win makes Manchester City table toppers again and now they are cruising towards a 3rd straight title. Pep Guardiola is expected to make a lot of changes for this weekend’s match against relegation-threatened Leeds. Erling Haaland, Rodri, John Stones, Ruben Diaz are all likely to be rested keeping the Champions League semi final against Real Madrid in mind.

Also read: Liverpool narrowly get past Fulham to strengthen their grip on 5th position