Manchester City 5 Fulham 0
Yaya Toure scored a hat-trick as Fulham were crushed at the Etihad Stadium, where they had defender Fernando Amorebieta sent off.
Amorebieta was shown a second yellow card after conceding a penalty for the second time, and having twice netted from the spot, Toure hit the net again with a thumping long-range effort.
Late goals from Fernandinho and Martin Demichelis then compounded the misery for Fulham, who stay bottom of the table.
Kieran Richardson came close to giving them the lead but they were mostly on the back foot in the first half and never looked like recovering after Toure’s first penalty, which came on 26 minutes and was awarded when Amorebieta kicked Alvaro Negredo in the back as the Spaniard chested the ball down.
Worse followed for the Whites eight minutes after the break, when Amorebieta brought down David Silva.
Out came the red card and once Toure made no mistake from the spot, there was no way back for the visitors.
Toure then found the top corner of the net with a stunning 25-yard drive – his 20th goal of the season.
Fernandinho’s 84th-minute strike beat David Stockdale at this near post and four minutes later the Fulham keeper saved Stevan Jovetic’s low shot only for Demichelis to tuck away the loose ball.
Fulham: Stockdale; Heitinga, Hangeland, Amorebieta, Riise; Kacaniklic (Roberts 55), Riether, Kvist, Sidwell, Richardson (Holtby 55); Woodrow (Kasami 84).
Subs not used: Stekelenburg, Karagounis, Zverotic, Bent.
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This post was last modified on 22/03/2014