Manchester City 3 Sunderland 0: match reportCity move within two points of Arsenal with goals from Dias, Gvardiol, and Foden sealing victory
Manchester City defeated Sunderland 3-0 to take advantage of Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa earlier and move within two points of the League leaders. City kept a clean sheet following conceding 6 goals in the last 2 league fixtures. Donnarumma started in goal. Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, and O’Reilly. Nico Gonzalez, Bernardo Silva, and Foden were in midfield with Doku, Cherki, and Foden were in attack.
Sunderland were resilient defensively to City’s early chances and possession and it looked as though the Blues would need something special to get themselves in the lead. Fortunately, Dias provided just that. In the 31st minute, Cherki passed to the Portuguese centre back, who shot from 30 yards out and the ball sailed right into the back of the net to make it 1-0. A few moments later, the Blues won a corner, mounting pressure on the Sunderland defence.
Phil Foden put an inswinger into the box and it found the head of Gvardiol perfectly into the bottom corner to double City’s lead and put them well in command of the game at half time.
There were still some concerns from a City perspective, given just a week ago the Blues led by the same scoreline at half time against Leeds and ended up having a late scare, needing a Foden winner late on to seal all three points. This capitulation almost happened once again when a Nunes mistake led to a golden Sunderland chance 1v1 with the goalkeeper but a fantastic Donnarumma save kept the Black Cats out.
Cherki ran the show in attack and danced past Sunderland’s defenders, crossing a chance in that found Haaland, whose shot was cleared off the line.
Moments later though, Cherki’s brilliance was on show again and he displayed a great piece of skill with a rabona cross into Foden who headed the ball in off the bar to make it 3-0 and seal the victory for the Blues.
Sunderland had their chances, such as when Xhaka hit the post but ultimately could not salvage anything from the game and City held on for a clean sheet. Their first in the League since their defeat of Liverpool by the same scoreline.
City are now 2nd with 31 points, one point ahead of Aston Villa in third and two points behind Arsenal in first. They now face a tough test midweek against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Champions League before facing another difficult away fixture against Crystal Palace in the league.
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