Manchester City closed the gap on Premier League leaders Arsenal to three points with a commanding 3-0 victory over Fulham at the Etihad Stadium

MANCHESTER City ramped up the pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal by strolling to a 3-0 win over Fulham on Wednesday.

Three goals in a dominant 15-minute first-half spell from Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly and Erling Haaland secured a 20th consecutive win over Fulham in all competitions.

The result cuts Arsenal’s advantage at the top to just three points. The Gunners can restore a six-point lead when they visit in-form Brentford on Thursday.

However, their lead has been reduced from nine points to three in just four days, reigniting City’s hopes of denying Arsenal a first league title in 22 years.

City built on the momentum from a dramatic late 2-1 win at Liverpool on Sunday. The January signings of Semenyo and Marc Guehi have added firepower and defensive steel to their title charge.

Semenyo opened the scoring with his fifth goal since joining from Bournemouth. Sander Berge inadvertently turned Matheus Nunes’ cross towards his own goal, allowing the Ghanaian to pounce.

Semenyo then turned provider for O’Reilly, who finished a lightning counter-attack with a cool chip over Bernd Leno.

Haaland, who had scored a penalty in the win at Anfield, drilled in his first non-penalty Premier League goal since December 20 from outside the box on 39 minutes.

The Norwegian had admitted he needed to improve after netting just once from open play in his previous 13 matches. Pep Guardiola then gave Haaland a rare rest, replacing him with Omar Marmoush for the second half.

Fulham had nearly staged a remarkable comeback from 5-1 down in a 5-4 thriller when the sides last met in December. City again failed to maintain their first-half intensity after the break.

This time, however, there was no consequence as City comfortably saw out the game to lay down the gauntlet to their title rivals.

 The Sun Malaysia