Riyad Mahrez proves his 'quality' again to power Manchester City past Fulham

Out of Africa and back to Manchester, Riyad Mahrez picked up where he left off. Algeria’s Cup of Nations campaign was underwhelming but the winger had scored in his five previous games for Manchester City before departing. He returned with a brace against Fulham in the FA Cup fourth round.

If few suggested Mahrez was the solution when City parted company with Sergio Aguero and missed out on Harry Kane last summer, the winger has compensated by becoming the top scorer. He has also established himself as the penalty taker, long Aguero’s role and often a problem for City.

“We struggle a lot in the last years to score a penalty and now it is a guarantee,” said Pep Guardiola. Mahrez has 15 goals for the season, a return that helps explain why City were content to let Ferran Torres leave and to sign Julian Alvarez but loan him back to River Plate. They have the firepower.

“He has a mentality to score but especially he has the quality,” said Guardiola. “Always he has a feeling to score a goal.” Mahrez allied that with creativity, ensuring City were level within two minutes when Fulham had the affront to take the lead.

The shock came in the early scoreline, showing toppers of the Championship ahead of the Premier League leaders. Normal service was restored long before the end.

City had an advantage after 13 minutes and ended with an 11th consecutive win against Fulham in a game that was as open and entertaining as had been promised. These sides are a guarantee of goals and they took their combined tally for the campaign to 165. Briefly, it seemed to be 166 when Liam Delap came off the bench to head in Ilkay Gundogan’s cross but an offside flag denied the youngster a first City goal.

But a teenager did score. Fabio Carvalho’s