Fulham ends City's perfect start in Premier League

Manchester City's perfect start to the Premier League season came to an end on Sunday as Fulham rallied from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Roberto Mancini's title chasers at Craven Cottage.

City looked well on its way to a fifth straight victory when Argentina striker Sergio Aguero maintained his wonderful form by scoring in the 18th minute and again 12 seconds into the second half.

It needed Aguero's eighth goal in five league games to sting Fulham into life and the hosts belied their position in the relegation zone to earn only its third point of the campaign, courtesy of goals by striker Bobby Zamora in the 55th and captain Danny Murphy 15 minutes from time.

Mancini made just two changes - both at full back - to the team that was held to a 1-1 draw by Napoli in its debut in the Champions League on Wednesday and City faded badly in the second half, slipping two points behind Manchester United following the leaders' 3-1 win over Chelsea on Sunday.

''I don't have players at the moment. I can only change the full backs,'' said Mancini, the manager of a club which has spent more than 430 million pounds ($680 million) on players since Abu Dhabi billionaire Sheikh Mansour launched a takeover in 2008.

Fulham, which played in the Europa League on Thursday, stayed in the bottom three despite the draw but manager Martin Jol said coming from two goals down against a team like City would give his side some much-needed belief.

''It was a fantastic achievement to come back against them,'' Jol said. ''I'm not sure they (City) will give away leads like this in the future.''

Mancini was critical of his players for not putting Fulham out of sight in a first half they dominated but in which they only stuck away one chance with Aguero latching onto David Silva's clipped through-ball and finishing neatly into the bottom corner.

''I think this could be a lesson for us,'' Mancini said. ''Because when you dominate a game like we did today, and you score only two goals, it's a problem.

''A football match is 95 minutes and a top team like us needs to have more control of the game. We conceded two stupid goals.''

Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer performed heroics to keep the scoreline down to just 1-0 by halftime, turning aside a long-range piledriver from left back Gael Clichy and a fierce left-foot strike by Bosnia striker Edin Dzeko in the space of two minutes.

Yet the Australia international could do little to stop Aguero's second, which came when the striker collected Dzeko's nod down and fired a low shot into the corner from just outside the area.

Rather than deflate Fulham further, that goal served to wake up the hosts, who gave a weary-looking City side the runaround in the final 35 minutes.

Zamora halved the deficit when he was found by Clint Dempsey and was given far too much space in the area to turn and smash a rising shot with his right foot into the top corner, his second league goal in successive games.

Micah Richards' last-ditch tackle denied Dempsey a shot on goal and Moussa Dembele forced a superb low save out of City goalkeeper Joe Hart but the visitors couldn't keep Fulham at bay.

Murphy looked to place a 25-yard shot into the right corner but the ball took a wicked deflection off City captain Vincent Kompany and squirmed into the other corner, past a wrongfooted Hart.

''We have started the season very well but we have only one problem,'' Mancini said. ''When we have chances, we should score.''