Fulham so close to comeback for the ages as they share nine-goal bonanza with Manchester City

Under the lights: Picture by @capitalfootball

Premier League

Fulham (1) 4 Smith Rowe 45, Iwobi 57, Chukwueze 72, 78

Manchester City (3) 5 Haaland 17, Reijnders 38, Foden 44, 48, Berge og 54

In the end, the craziness stopped just in time for Man City to claim the points - but this near-miss for Fulham will linger in the memory as much as a win.

The Whites found themselves 5-1 down early in the second half to an imperious Man City and were staring down the barrel. But in the event, we were just getting started.

Samuel Chukwueze came off the bench to score twice to leave Pep Guardiola's men floundering. Jelly-legged they could see all their silky work unravelling.

In the end, Fulham could not quite make it 5-5. Still, as the PA system had it at the end: 'That's Entertainment' The Jam's classic felt very appropriate.

The eventual outcome was all-too familiar of course. Fulham had suffered 18 defeats in a row in head-to-heads and recorded no win since April 2009. Not since 2011 had the Whites even avoided losing to City.

And it did not take too long for the direction of travel to be flagged up again as Phil Foden rolled the ball perfectly into the path of Erling Haaland in the sort of space in which he invariably scores. This time, his shot past Bernd Leno came back off the inside of a post. A real let-off that turned out to be only a reprieve.

The response was good, with Raul Jimenez setting Harry Wilson free down the right and a check back and ball across for Emile Smith Rowe almost paid dividends before a last-ditch block closed the door. But the small surge of optimism did not last. In the next serious City attack, it was 1-0 Haaland after all - the Norwegian powering home a cross from Jeremy Doku.

It was his 100th Premier League goal and no-one has achieved that number in so few matches - 111. He beat the previous record held by Alan Shearer by 13 games.

Would the setback spell the beginning of the end? Smith Rowe showed we might still have a contest. A turn inside the box after being found by Alex Iwobi, gave him a sight of goal and Gianluigi Donnarumma was hurried into a smothering save. From a corner, the former Arsenal midfielder hooked over from just outside the area.

City were in no mood to relinquish their dominance though and after Haaland had slipped Tijjani Reijnders in through the middle, it became 2-0 - the Dutchman dinking past an exposed Leno.

The game looked as good as done before the break when Foden speared in a third from inside the D after a corner broke towards him and no white shirt was able to close the England midfielder down in time.

To their credit, the Whites poured forward in search of a toe-hold in the match and when Wilson chipped in from the right, Smith Rowe met the ball with a corkscrew header that looped beyond Donnarumma.

A comeback still seemed out of the question. When Doku ventured forward right at the start of the second half, his ball into the middle bounced off the heel of Haaland and Foden snaffled the chance at the far post for his second of the evening.

There was more pain to come as Doku wriggled into the box with that familiar swagger before delivering a shot that deflected off Sander Berge and flew into the top corner.

But we were still far done with the goals and near-misses. Iwobi swept in a fine shot from the edge of the area to make it 5-2 before Haaland headed a Savinho cross onto the inside of post - his second bit of woodwork bothering of the night.

Then Fulham struck again twice through Chukwueze to set up an improbable grandstand finish. Unlucky not to have started given how impressive we was at Spurs on Sunday, he was a golden half-time sub and netted his pair in a raucous six minute spell.

First he slammed in a low shot into the bottom corner, then rifled into the opposite corner after latching on to a Donnarumma punch that did not get far enough away from danger.

There was still plenty of time to make the night even more memorable and some half-chances came Fulham's way. Chukwueze blazed over after cutting in from the right and Josh King had an effort cleared off the line at the death.

This win puts Man City just two points behind Arsenal, who play tomorrow against Brentford. They are starting to motor in attack but defensive vulnerability gives others a fighting chance these days.

For Marco Silva, this may ultimately have been a deflating result, but he will have admired the way his side refused to throw in the towel at 5-1. His team kept believing and so did the crowd. It's not often that home defeats can feel as exhilarating as this.

Whites: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Tete (Castagne h/t), Andersen, Bassey, Sessegnon - Lukic (Chukweuze h/), Berge - Wilson(Kevin 82), Smith Rowe (King 74), Iwobi - Jimenez (Kusi-Asare 73)

City: (4-3-3) Donnarumma - Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Gvardoil, O'Reilly - Reijnders (Cherki 82), Gonzalez (Stones 64), Bernardo Silva - Foden (Ake 97), Haaland, Doku (Savinho 64)

Attendance: 26,700