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Louise Thomas
Editor
Jeremy Doku insists there is no pressure on Manchester City’s forwards to score more to mask the absence of midfield lynchpin Rodri.
The champions need to find a way to cope without the influential Spaniard after he was ruled out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury last month.
Mateo Kovacic proved himself a more-than-adequate replacement on Saturday with two goals as City came from behind to beat Fulham 3-2 in a tough Premier League encounter at the Etihad Stadium.
It was a game in which City had 20 shots – with Doku himself scoring a stunner – and the Belgian says the approach was no different than usual.
He said: “Every time we try to score more goals. It’s not because Rodri’s not there that we try to score more.
“If we can score even more we will always try with or without Rodri.
“He’s a one-of-a-kind player, but Kova played in his position and did well. He scored two nice goals. He’s a good guy, deserves what he got.”
City dominated the early stages and were stunned when Andreas Pereira fired Fulham into a 26th-minute lead after a clever backheel flick by Raul Jimenez.
Yet the Cottagers had already served a warning when Adama Traore missed a gilt-edged chance and the same player squandered several more in a frustrating afternoon.
They were made to pay for the those misses as Kovacic turned the game around with his double and Doku sealed the points with a fine strike in the 82nd minute before a late Rodrigo Muniz consolation.
“I saw there was a lot of space on the inside and just tried to hit the ball well,” said Doku, who cut inside from the left to fire home from distance after coming off the bench.
“As soon as I lifted my head up it went in. I like ‘dribble’ goals, for example against Luton, but of course this is one of the most beautiful.”
Fulham’s defeat was their first since their 1-0 loss across town at Manchester United in their opening game of the season.
Despite the result, Pereira felt the Cottagers could take plenty from their performance.
“It’s mixed feelings,” he said. “We created a few chances and I would say a draw would be fair. We’re very proud of what we did.
“It is a difficult place to play and we played well. They have a lot of quality players and we showed we can compete against them.”
