Man City v Fulham player ratings

Fulham always faced an uphill struggle against the champions after going behind in the second minute. Here’s how we rated the players in their 2-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium.

Mark Schwarzer: 5
Ought to have done better for Manchester City’s first goal and his distribution was poor throughout.

Sascha Riether: 7
Fulham’s most effective defender and also got forward well. Served up a couple of decent crosses but to no avail.

Aaron Hughes: 5
Was caused all sorts of problems by Carlos Tevez, whose movement was excellent.

Brede Hangeland: 6
Strong in the air but was given the slip by Edin Dzeko on several occasions. Uncertain on the ball too, particularly early on.

Kieran Richardson: 5
Picked up an injury and was replaced midway through the second half, having been no match for James Milner on the flank. John Arne Riise was mixed.

Damien Duff: 5
Very quiet. Fulham needed much more from him when trying to hit City on the counter-attack.

Steve Sidwell: 7
Found the going tough in midfield against a strong City side but did well, using the ball sensibly and producing a number of good challenges, Was also unlucky not to equalise in the first half.

Giorgios Karagounis: 6
Tried to create and showed his usual nice range of passing, but was too easy for City to play around when he didn’t have the ball.

Ashkan Dejagah: 6
Full of running but lacked composure at important times.

Bryan Ruiz: 6
Showed some nice touches but City were well aware of the threat he posed and dealt with him strongly.

Dimitar Berbatov: 5
Possibly his worst game for the Whites so far. Well below par and unusually wasteful with the ball.

Matthew Briggs: 6
Solid after coming on midway through the second half.

Mladen Petric: 6
Brought on with 20 minutes left and had a go but was unable to make any real impact.

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