A brace from David Silva helped Manchester City record a 2-0 victory over Fulham at the Etihad Stadium this afternoon.

It took the Spanish international just two minutes to break the deadlock when he reacted quickly to Mark Schwarzer pushing clear a shot from Edin Dzeko to convert the rebound.

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Schwarzer produced another save to deny a header from Dzeko moments later, before he was then called into action to frustrate Carlos Tevez from 25 yards out.

Fulham struggled to carve out any attacks during the opening 45 minutes, but when they did, they went close to levelling up the match. Steve Sidwell rose highest the Man City area, but his headed effort went wide via the post.

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The hosting champions continued to dominate after the restart, although it took them until the 69th minute to wrap up the points. Silva ran onto a reverse pass from Tevez, before he lifted the ball over an advancing Schwarzer.

In the closing stages substitute Sergio Aguero had a chance to add a third for City when he rounded Schwarzer, but the Argentine was unable to get a clean strike away.

The victory has seen City close the gap on leaders and rivals Manchester United to four points.