MANCHESTER, England, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Antoine Semenyo scored one goal and laid on another as Manchester City swept to a comfortable 3-0 home win over Fulham on Wednesday to close the gap on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table to three points.
Second-placed City have 53 points from 26 games, but Arsenal (56 points) have a game in hand as they travel to Brentford on Thursday. Fulham remain in 12th place with 34 points from 26 matches.
City netted all their goals in the first half as Semenyo profited from a defensive error to open his team's account, before his assist allowed Nico O’Reilly to add his name to the scoresheet.
Erling Haaland added a third to extend his lead in the Golden Boot race with a 22nd goal of the season as City threatened to run riot before a tepid second half in which each side had just one shot on target.
"No secrets (to his form)," Sememyo told TNT Sports. "It's just being part of a great team environment, the coach (Pep Guardiola) has been great and they've made it easy for me to settle. It's all a fairytale right now.
"We had to back up what we did at the weekend (in beating Liverpool). Being in a title race is new to me but I'm enjoying it, it comes with a lot of pressure and demands but we've got the team to do it. Twelve games to go, let's keep going."
It was vintage City in the opening period as they created chance after chance and were full value for their healthy lead, before retreating into their shell after the break, though they were never in danger of surrendering the advantage.
CITY LEAD
They took the lead in the 24th minute as Semenyo netted his fifth goal in eight games since joining the club from Bournemouth in January.
A cross from the right was inadvertently directed back towards his own goal by Fulham midfielder Sander Berge and Semenyo was able to poke the ball into the net from close range.
Harry Wilson tested City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the home goal in a rare Fulham attack following a quick break, but it was 2-0 a minute later.
A flowing City move saw Semenyo slip the ball behind the Fulham defence and O’Reilly lifted it over visiting goalkeeper Bernd Leno with a neat finish.
City kept coming and it was 3-0 on 39 minutes as a clinical strike from Haaland completed an excellent half.
The striker picked up the ball on the edge of the box and drilled a shot low into the bottom right corner of the net.
(Reporting by Nick SaidEditing by Toby Davis and Clare Fallon)
