Read Daniel Taylor’s match report from the Etihad Stadium:
Full time: Manchester City 2-1 Sunderland
Peep peep! A scruffy win for City in their first match under Pep Guardiola, and the great perfectionist won’t be especially happy. Sunderland did a lot of good things despite barely seeing the football, and it needed an unfortunate late own goal from Paddy McNair to give City the three points. Thanks for your company, night!
90+2 min Van Aanholt’s gentle, dinked cross is chested down by McNair in the box but Caballero reacts smartly to grab the ball a few yards from goal.
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90+1 min In the first of four added minutes, Kolarov is booked for a foul on Januzaj.
90 min Iheanacho has a great chance too make it 3-1 but his shot on the turn deflects just over the bar.
89 min “Re: Min 85,” says David Leech. “What is boring is this Guardiola love fest. Man City are a team of mercenaries. Guardiola, while good, is playing Championship Manager with an unlimited amount of money, and equally a mercenary. Boring, boring, boring. Want to prove you are the best coach, go and manage Stoke.”
I’ll tell you what’s boring: you.
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Navas spanked a really dangerous low cross from the right. Mannone dived but could only deflect it towards the far post, where it hit the head of McNair before bouncing into the net. McNair had almost no reaction time, such was the pace of the cross.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Sunderland (McNair own goal 86)
A nightmare for Paddy McNair, who scores an own goal on his debut just after coming on. There was nothing he could do really.
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85 min The camera cuts to a group of City fans who look thoroughly bored. It has not been a great game but it was naive to expect them to win 6-0 from the start of the season. They’ll be doing it by October.
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84 min Sunderland bring on Paddy McNair for Jermain Defoe. With Love, McNair, Januzaj and O’Shea on the field, David Moyes must be thrilled to have a second chance at managing Manchester United.
83 min Delph’s cross is unwittingly headed over his own bar by Rodwell. Corner to City on the right, and Sagna heads it wide of the near post.
81 min Januzaj wins a corner off Kolarov, which he will take himself. It’s a poor one, headed clear at the near post.
80 min De Bruyne, teed up by Navas, whaps a shot high over the bar from 25 yards. Iheanacho then comes on to replace Clichy.
79 min Sterling, who has been really dangerous since moving to the left, wins a corner. Nothing comes of it, however, and City are reading Iheanacho.
78 min “I think leaving Hart out shows some ballsy balls from Pep, essentially mind-gaming 50,000 City supporters that ‘this is my team now so go and suck a lemon’,” says Chris Boylan. “But saying no-no to Yaya seems to have been a mistake. No power in midfield, none of those striding moves that draws the back line forward, really could have used him today.”
Didn’t he bin Toure when he was in his prime as well? I think it’s the right decision; he’s not a Guardiola player. The players just need a bit of time to learn Pepology.
76 min City’s main problem today, and the big surprise, has been the pace of their passing. It has, with a few exceptions, been really slow for a Guardiola side.
74 min Sunderland have a corner. They’re rampant! Stones heads it away very well under pressure.
Borini found Rodwell, who stabbed a short pass through the legs of John Stones on the edge of the area. Defoe, on the move as always, ran away from Sagna and drilled a crisp low shot into the net from 12 yards. Terrific goal.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Sunderland (Defoe 71)
Jermain Defoe knows how to score goals, and he’s done it yet again.
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71 min Navas cleverly reads Khazri’s backheader to Mannone and almost gets there first. City are cruising.
69 min De Bruyne plays a huge crossfield pass to Navas of such brilliance that Navas raised his hand in acknowledgement long before it reaches him. Navas then makes a mess of the cross but well, no team’s perfect.
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68 min The resulting free-kick is clipped over the wall by De Bruyne and beaten away by the diving Mannone. A decent save but one he’d expect to make.
66 min Khazri plays a bizarre crossfield pass back to Love, who miscontrols it and is robbed by Sterling. Love fouls him just outside the area and is booked.
64 min A double substitution for Sunderland: Januzaj and Khazri replace Watmore and Gooch. City make a change as well, with Fabian Delph coming on for David Silva, who was excellent in his new midfield role.
63 min “On the one hand, I feel like a fair-minded, educated, reasonable adult,” says Matt Dony. “Which just makes it so frustrating when I realise what a childish, tribal idiot football makes me. Steve McManaman went to Madrid and did well, which indirectly leads to me intensely disliking Pep. Yes, he is a wonderful coach, and he’s had a fantastic impact on the game as a whole. He’s influenced countless other coaches and teams, and he’s still potentially got so many years ahead of him. And yet, I do not like him. Hala Madrid, and it’s all Macca’s fault.”
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61 min De Bruyne plays a nice cutback to Aguero, whose first-time shot is superbly blocked by the sliding Kone.
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60 min That should have been 2-0. Sterling, on the left now, skinned Love with ease and moved into the box. He seemed to run it out of play before cutting it back but play went on and the ball eventually came to Aguero, who dragged a snapshot wide from 10 yards.
58 min A City substitution, with Jesus Navas replacing Nolito. Sterling will move to the left wing presumably. Nolito played like a foreign player in his first match in England. He’ll be fine once he acclimatises.
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57 min Louis van Gaal will be loving this match.
55 min Sunderland are diligently defending their one-goal deficit. I jest, of course, 1-0 would be a good result for them and they have done pretty well in the circumstances.
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53 min After that fast start to the half, City have slowed down again. This isn’t great. You know you’re not watching a match for the ages when the most interesting thing about it is the positioning of the full-backs.
48 min City’s vigorous start to the second half suggests Pep is in possession of a hairdryer. Aguero’s shot is blocked, De Bruyne’s dangerous cross is palmed away by Mannone and then Van Aanholt nervously concedes a corner.
46 min Peep peep! City begin the second half, passing from right to left.
Half-time reading
Half-time chit-chat
“Is it too soon to start saying, ‘It’s all about the money these days’,” says Gary Naylor, “or do Leicester need to lose another one?”
Oh, Gary, I thought you were better than this. I thought you of all people would realise that 6.18pm on the opening day of the season is hopelessly late to be jumping to conclusions.
Half time: Manchester City 1-0 Sunderland (Aguero pen)
Pep Guardiola won’t be happy with that. City were given a goal after four minutes but, although they completely dominated possession with their 2-1-2-2-3 formation, they didn’t really create much. See you in 10 minutes!
45 min “Is Lynden Gooch really, as Wikipedia claims, Graham Gooch’s American-born son?!” writes Dan Lucas.
I would give my soul for that to be true, but I think the clue is in the word ‘Wikpedia’.
44 min Sunderland are finishing this half very strongly, with one corner soon followed by another. City’s passing was so hypnotic in the first 30 minutes that they seem to have put themselves to sleep.
42 min Gooch is booked for something or other.
41 min Sunderland’s best chance! City don’t clear the corner properly, and it bounces around for ages before Kone, on the edge of the box, heads it over the line of defenders. Defoe, alert as ever, gets there first and his volley with the outside of the right foot is instinctively saved by Caballero.
40 min A promising attack from Sunderland. Borini draws three men towards him and then finds Rodwell, whose 25-yard shot is deflected behind for a corner.
38 min Kolarov is penalised for bumping Watmore out of play. Sunderland are doing okay in the circumstances; City could easily be out of sight by now.
36 min The hitherto subdued De Bruyne receives possession from Nolito and belts a shot a few yards wide. Mannone had it covered.
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35 min (part two) That moment when a man in his forties begins a sentence with “that moment when”.
35 min That moment when you realise Fabio Borini is on the pitch
34 min Love robs De Bruyne and wins a free-kick. He has started this match excellently.
32 min Defoe handles Love’s cross inside the City area and decides to chance his arm by appealing for a penalty because of Stones’ challenge from behind. No dice, solider.
31 min Kone intercepts a loose pass from Sterling, runs 20 yards and then places a long curving pass behind the defence towards Defoe. Caballero reads it well and runs out of his area to clear. It’ll be so interesting to so this City defence in tougher games. Somebody will put five past them this season.
30 min “Pep” hates passing for passing’s sake and, though City have not been guilty of that, there has been a whiff of sterile domination in the way the first half-hour has gone. It’s been interesting and boring at the same time. Clichy, Fernandinho and Silva have been very influential.
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27 min “The type of people who are surprised by Pep dropping Hart are the same people who though England were contenders during the summer,” says David Flynn. “Deluded. The more interesting debate is where Hart goes from here given that you’d need to go down past the Europa League places to find a team who need a keeper. Best case scenario is that Klopp might come sniffing about.”
24 min Nice play from Nolito, who shimmers past Love and then, from a tight angle on the left side of the box, hits a booming curler not far wide of the far post.
22 min The only positive for Sunderland is that City haven’t created any clear chances apart from the goal. If it’s still 1-0 after 75 minutes, you never know. Okay, you do know, but I’m trying to be positive, work with me here.
21 min Jermain Defoe has done more defending than Stones and Kolarov so far.
18 min It’s all City, even if they haven’t created much. A promising move between Silva and Nolito loses impetus when Nolito runs into traffic, and eventually Sterling screws a shot high over the bar. City have had 82 per cent of the possession so far.
16 min Steve McManaman has pointed out that Clichy and Sagna are playing very centrally. It’s more of a 2-3-2-3 formation. Let’s see him try that fancy formation against Fashanu and Alan Cork, eh?
15 min How good must it be to play centre-half for a Guardiola team? John Stones and Kolarov are swaggering around like Beckenbauer and Scirea.
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14 min “Well that was an early penalty,” says Michael Hood. “Was that a record?” No. You’re welcome!
12 min The penalty came from a brilliant angled header by Fernandinho, who deliberately thumped it 30 yards to put Sterling into space on the right. Sterling got into the box then came back the other way and was tripped by the sliding van Aanholt.
11 min Lynden Gooch has started well for Sunderland on the left wing. He runs at Sagna, then past him on the outside before clipping a dangerous low cross that goes right across the face of goal.
10 min Nolito tries to dribble past Love, who reads it and concedes a corner. It’s only half cleared by Kaboul to Aguero, who mishits a bobbling left-footed volley from 15 yards that is easily saved by Mannone.
8 min Silva’s dangerous pass is shanked over his own bar by Van Aanholt, who has had a triumphant start to the season.
7 min De Bruyne’s inswinging free-kick from the left wing is punched away by Mannone. Sunderland could get panelled here if they are not careful.
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Sunderland (Aguero 4 pen)
The first of many, many, many Manchester City goals under Pep Guardiola is scored by Sergio Aguero, who places a powerful penalty into the left corner of the net. Mannone went the right way but it was a beautiful finish.
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It was a clear penalty, and a stupid tackle.
PENALTY TO CITY!
Their first attack under “Pep” brings a penalty when Van Aanholt brings down Sterling.
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2 min Kolarov plays a dodgy square pass across the defence and Fernandinho is penalised for a foul on Defoe. The free-kick is 25 yards out, and van Aanholt’s deflected shot is awkwardly saved by the diving Caballero. The ball comes to Gooch, whose deep chipped cross is headed towards goal by Watmore and patted over the bar by Caballero. The referee gives a goal-kick.
1 min Peep peep! The Pep era is under way. Sunderland are kicking from right to left. They are in red and white; City are in blue.
In case you missed it, Joe Hart has been dropped
“Pep” is bang out of order. We invite him into our country and he does that to our No1. He might as well have called the Queen an old hag.
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Matt Dony has finally sobered up after Wales’ Euro 2016 semi-final
Ah, football, you magnificent, beautiful mess. How I’ve missed you. You teased and tortured over the summer, then you went away. You made way for Big Sports Day, but now you’re back. League football started to get me excited last week, now I can get down to the sacred, time-honoured tradition of blind hopefulness, before reality comes crashing a back mid-October and I resign myself to the fact that one of the Manchester clubs will win the whole damn thing. Until then, though, it’s gonna be a helluva ride!
Aside from Joe Hart, feels telling that Yaya Toure not even among the subs for Pep Guardiola's first game. Toure fit, just not selected.
— Daniel Taylor (@DTguardian) August 13, 2016
Team news, in which Joe Hart's world collapses
Manchester City (4-1-2-3) Caballero; Sagna, Stones, Kolarov, Clichy; Fernandinho; De Bruyne, Silva; Sterling, Aguero, Nolito.
Substitutes Hart, Zabaleta, Reges, Navas, Delph, Mangala, Iheanacho.
Sunderland (4-2-3-1) Mannone; Love, Kaboul, Kone, van Aanholt; O’Shea, Rodwell; Gooch, Watmore, Borini; Defoe.
Substitutes Djilobodji, Khazri, Pickford, Lens, McNair, Asoro, Januzaj.
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Preamble
Pep quiz, hotshot: what is Senor Guardiola’s win percentage as a coach in league football? The answer is a staggering 78 per cent, which is miles clear of any of the great managers in game’s history. Contrast that with Manchester City’s win percentage in the Premier League last season, a dismal 50 per cent, and it’s clear something has to give.
For once all that self-congratulatory muck about the unique challenge of the Premier League - with the implication that a front line of Pele, Cruyff and Maradona would have got little change out of Andy Thorn and Brian Gayle at Plough Lane in Wimbledon’s glory days - actually applies, because teams just don’t win 75 per cent of their matches in this country. Whatever happens at City, and both unprecedented dominance and a Pep meltdown after one inane question too many from the press-pack shouldn’t be discounted, it’s going to be fascinating to watch.
They start tonight with what should be a comfortable win at home to Sunderland, who are starting again, again, under the excellent David Moyes. The last time he met Guardiola was in the Champions League quarter-final in April 2014. Guardiola’s team won, as they usually do. The frequency with which his new team win will ultimately play a big part in whether he is recognised as the greatest coach of all time or somebody who achieved extraordinary things only when he had extraordinary players.
Kick off is at 5.30pm.
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