rewrite this title Pep: Wild City win at Fulham matter of ‘survival’

Pep Guardiola was at a loss to explain what happened to his Manchester City side after they almost blew a four-goal lead in a madcap 5-4 win at Fulham, adding it was a matter of survival.

Erling Haaland brought up his century of Premier League goals, but his milestone got lost in the mayhem of what was to follow.

City were 5-1 up and cruising shortly after half-time, but goals from Alex Iwobi and substitute Samuel Chukwueze’s double left them clinging on for dear life by the end.

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“Did you enjoy that, guys?” Guardiola smiled after the match. “Me? Impossible.

“It’s the Premier League, you can’t control, it’s the Premier League. I know you’re going to ask what happened, and I don’t have an answer.

“It’s the emotion, it’s the football. Why you do this, why you do that? But I’m sorry to tell you, we made incredible things today, incredible, because I know how difficult that team is.

“We proved it and scored the goals that we score and the quality we have done. Erling had a chance for 6-3 and immediately later, 5-4.

“And when that happens, it’s just a question of survival. Don’t tell me how, the players don’t know either. At the end we take it.”

City are now two points behind leaders Arsenal, who host Brentford on Wednesday, but a title tilt is surely not sustainable with defending like this.

“Arsenal are so strong and so solid. So I know what we have to do,” added Guardiola. “It will be difficult, but at the same time, the Premier League is so long. And I promise you that I have enough experience to make long, long runs to try to fight to win the Premier League.”

Haaland had earlier become, by some distance, the quickest player to score 100 times in the Premier League, taking just 111 matches.

Tijjani Reijnders scored the second and Phil Foden hit a fabulous third, before Emile Smith Rowe pulled one back for Fulham before halftime.

Foden took his tally to four goals in two matches and when Jeremy Doku’s effort looped in off Sander Berge’s knee, that should have been that.

There was still little sense of jeopardy for the visitors when Iwobi pulled another one back for Fulham, curling home from 20 yards.

That was until substitute Chukwueze lashed in his first Fulham goals, two in the space of six minutes.

When his second flew past an increasingly shell-shocked Gianluigi Donnarumma there were still 12 minutes left, plus eight of stoppage time.

Marco Silva’s side threw everything at City, but just when another sub, Josh King, thought he had grabbed an equaliser and the unlikeliest of points, Josko Gvardiol got back to clear his shot off the line.

“What they showed was impressive,” said Silva. “Normally losing a heavy score against a side like City many things can go in their mind.

“Maybe the damage is done, don’t take any risks. But the reaction from the boys was unbelievable, and we probably deserved a fifth goal to equalise the game.”