Manchester City wrestled control of this absorbing Premier League title race as Julian Alvarez's stunning first-half winner ensured Pep Guardiola's side leapfrogged Arsenal at the summit with a hard-fought 2-1 victory against Fulham onFulham boss Marco Silva had labelled City as 'clearly the best team in the Premier League' in the build-up - a clumsy challenge from Tim Ream inside 80 seconds afforded Erling Haaland the chance to bring up a half century of goals this season
Bernd Leno barely blinked before his spot-kick was dispatched but Carlos Vinicius levelled against the run of play in the 15th minute at Craven Cottage
Fulham grew into the game but Alvarez, starting in place of the injured Kevin De Bruyne, restored City's lead before the break with a stunning strike in the 36th minute
If City are to prevail in their quest for this historic treble, they will be required to overcome awkward assignments such as these with Fulham seeing two penalty claims turned down during a fractious second period
At the final whistle, there was relief for Pep Guardiola as he shared a prolonged hug with Haaland
 The result means City move a point above Arsenal at the top for the first time since February 17, with a game in hand against West Ham on Wednesday - live on  - while Fulham remain in 10th place on 45 points
Guardiola said: "We knew the game today would define a lot
 Now we have two games at home
 Step by step and game by game
 The best mentality is to accept our opponent is not going to drop many points
 Now we have six games and we know we are closer
"Before the action, the big news was the absence of De Bruyne
 Guardiola said his midfield metronome did not 'feel good' but declined to offer any indication of when he expects the Belgian to return
It did not derail City from a blistering start
 Haaland scored his 50th goal of the season - his 34th in the Premier League - as City took the lead through an early penalty
 The Norway striker fired past Leno after Alvarez had been brought down by Ream
"It's taken Haaland a while to adapt to the Premier League hasn't it?!" crowed Jamie Redknapp in appreciation at the interval
 It meant Haaland emulated a record set by Tom 'Pongo' Waring during the 1930/31 season playing for Aston Villa at the top of the English pyramid
"I know that Winston Churchill was not even Prime Minister the last time the record was set that Erling has equalled
 He showed his mentality with his goal," said Guardiola
From 50 goals to a 50th appearance in England marked in style
Silva spoke to Sky Sports on Friday about the need for his side to go back to having a target man after playing a false nine at times since Aleksandar Mitrovic's ban, but the roles were inverted for Fulham's well-worked equaliser
Andreas Pereira's flighted ball into the box was knocked down by Harry Wilson into the path of Vinicius, who sliced across the ball to finish beyond a rooted Ederson
Jack Grealish's shot was brilliantly tipped onto the bar by Leno but City restored their lead in the 36th minute when Alvarez collected Riyad Mahrez's pass, proved too strong for Joao Palhinha, and curled a stunning 25-yard strike into the top corner
"If you play almost all the games to be world champion with Argentina, it is because he has something unique," Guardiola said afterwards
 "It is something in the future to make both he and Kevin [De Bruyne] play
 In some games, we will come up against defences with five so this will be important
 He has the vision, it is not just about scoring goals
"City almost doubled their advantage within two minutes of the restart
 Alvarez was the architect this time as he lost Issa Diop - on for the hospitalised Ream with a broken arm which rules him out for the remaining games - and found Grealish, whose cross was met by Haaland but Leno got down well to tip his low effort wide
A nasty collision between Pereira and Manuel Akanji led to the Fulham midfielder being carried off on a stretcher, but Tom Cairney came on to carry the fight
Leno kept the hosts in it as he saved from Alvarez before a flashpoint in the City penalty area drew penalty claims as Ederson smothered at the falling feet of Vinicius
 Ederson certainly had not covered himself in glory as he came and did not claim, but referee Simon Hooper was unmoved
Bobby Decordova-Reid pounced on a poor headed clearance by Akanji to whistle a long-range shot wide
 After the 51st minute, City had just one shot on target
 Tempers flared briefly between Grealish and Kenny Tete as Fulham felt they should have been given a penalty when Bobby De Cordova-Reid was brought down in the box, but Hooper waved play on
Credit to Fulham for the way they battled but they were ultimately overpowered by City's blistering start
 Is there any stopping them now?Manchester City boss : "Definitely [one of the hardest games] and we knew it
 All the time, we come from a run of victories as Arsenal didn't drop points and it looked like the target was just beating Arsenal
 But when you play that game, you can drop a little bit
"I didn't see that drop
 The grass was dry for both teams so it was difficult to get rhythm but we found our momentum
 We defended properly which is the biggest difference from the past
 We struggled a little bit but it's normal and my only concern is how we recover
"We have a lot of games, every three days, and it is normal
 Winning games helps us to be faster and we accept the challenge
"When asked if the team needs a leader like Churchill, Guardiola added: "This group of players don't need a leader
 They know what they have to do
"Fulham boss : "It's always difficult to take when you get a defeat but the worst thing today was not the result or the performance but the two players who got injured
 They both look serious and this is the worst thing we take from the game
 Tim Ream has broken his arm and won't play again this season
 This is really tough to take
"We conceded a penalty after the first minute but we showed character and personality to come back and equalise
 We had a clear plan for the game, where we were focused on using the central zone and force them wide
 We knew this was going to happen but the players stuck to the plan
"They had to move from building with three to building with four [at the back in the first half], but we cannot concede a second goal the way we did it
 We lost the ball in a certain area and it allowed them to counter-attack
"We didn't create many chances but there were some dangerous moments around the box
""It was a very important win for us today
 Every game from here on out is a final
 Especially after the win against Arsenal, we'll be able to catch up
 We need to keep this going
"It was really nice to score here, a really important goal at an important point of the match
 Really nice to contribute
"On playing with Haaland, Alvarez added: "It's very important to have such a dangerous forward, he's scoring so many goals
 It's on the whole team to be able to play throughout the phase as a whole so we need to keep that going
"It was almost like a traditional two-pronged attack
 A Son and Kane
 A Rooney and a Robin van Persie