Match report
Full-time: Sunderland 0-2 Manchester City
Martin Atkinson’s final whistle confirms the inevitable. Goals from Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane move Manchester City up to third, eight points behind Chelsea. Sunderland remain bottom, six points behind Crystal Palace in 17th place with 11 matches left. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye.
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90 min: There will be three minutes of stoppage time.
89 min: Fabian Delph replaces Leroy Sane.
88 min: Sane finds Aguero on the edge of the area. He hits this one viciously, but Pickford brilliantly pushes it wide.
87 min: Nolito shoots straight at Pickford from 18 yards.
84 min: City steam up the other end and Sane and De Bruyne combine to release Aguero, who rams a shot straight at Pickford.
83 min: Jermain Defoe nods past Willy Caballero. He’s miles offside.
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82 min: Nolito - remember him? - replaces Raheem Sterling. And Wahbi Khazri replaces Adnan Januzaj.
80 min: This is walking football.
78 min: Kevin de Bruyne replaces Yaya Toure, which seems cruel and unfair on Sunderland.
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76 min: City are barely allowing Sunderland a touch.
74 min: The brilliant Sane surges, twists and turns on the left. Jones just does enough to put the German off. He probably should have shot earlier. He settles for a corner.
73 min: Pickford assertively charges out to boot clear before Sane can race on to a through ball.
70 min: Yaya Toure lines one up from 25 yards. High. Wide.
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69 min: Darron Gibson is down with an injury. Luckily David Moyes has another former Everton midfielder on the bench. Jack Rodwell replaces him.
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68 min: Oviedo dinks a cross into the middle from the left. Januzaj glances wide.
67 min: As Aston Villa found out, it catches up with you in the end. This looks like the season for Sunderland.
64 min: David Silva is being allowed far too much space. He’s killing Sunderland with those little soft-shoe dribbles. They can expect further punishment if they don’t get closer to him.
63 min: David Moyes: beleaguered.
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62 min: Manchester City’s fans are serenading Pep Guardiola. Sunderland’s are not serenading Pep Guardiola.
61 min: From the resulting corner, Kone heads straight at Caballero.
60 min: Sunderland look for an instant response. But Caballero saves Larsson’s low drive from the right with his feet.
GOAL! Sunderland 0-2 Manchester City (Sane, 59 min)
You’re always going to be in trouble if you give David Silva the freedom of the park. Sunderland allow the Spanish magician to advance through the middle and he sends Leroy Sane through on the left of the area. He speeds clear, fires past Pickford and sees his shot go in off the inside of the far post.
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57 min: City toy with Sunderland on the edge of the area on the right until Sterling tees up Silva, who drives a shot towards the far corner. Pickford pushes it away.
56 min: Oviedo catches Sterling heavily from behind. Martin Atkinson settles for a lecture.
55 min: Sunderland’s players keep running offside. Which is sub-optimal.
52 min: Niall Quinn has just paid Manchester City a compliment for their defensive strength, which doesn’t say a great deal for Sunderland’s attacking.
51 min: Silva releases Sagna with a lovely pass on the right, but the full-back makes a mess of his cross. Toure doesn’t hide his frustration in the middle.
47 min: Sunderland manage some early pressure. City hack a cross away as far as Gibson. His shot’s deflected through to Defoe, but he’s offside. “The problem is that most refs are too chicken to blow for fowl throws,” notes Robin Hazlehurst.
46 min: Sunderland get the second half underway. “Following up on the Question about Pep getting Sunderland promoted back to the Premier League, do you think if Allardyce was appointed as Rotherham’s manager he would be able to save them from certain relegation?” says Renasha Mishra. No, but you’d fancy his chances with Bristol City or Wigan.
Half-time: Sunderland 0-1 Manchester City
It’s been scrappy and Sunderland have competed fairly well, but Manchester City have Sergio Aguero.
45 min: David Silva puts the ball in the Sunderland net at the end of a flowing break. The flag’s up for offside. Silva was onside but Sterling, tussling with a Sunderland defender in an offside position nearby, was deemed to have interfered with the play.
44 min: I think that was City’s first shot on target. They haven’t been at their best going forward, but one clinical moment has made the difference.
GOAL! Sunderland 0-1 Manchester City (Aguero, 42 min)
One moment it seems Willy Caballero has put Manchester City in bother, the next it’s in Sunderland’s net. Caballero looked to have put City under pressure with a poor, low clearance, but Toure helped out with a firm challenge and then powered forward on the break. He swept a pass out to Sterling, who slid a low ball towards the near post for Aguero to skip away from Kone and scoop a clever finish over Pickford.
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40 min: There’s nothing like a good discussion about foul throws.
@JacobSteinberg Lingard foul-throwed against Bournemouth yesterday!
— Mark Williams (@MarkWilliamss) March 5, 2017
39 min: Defoe shows good strength on the edge of the area, turns and shoots. A deflection takes it spinning wide for a corner on the left. Larsson curls this one in and again Jones gets his head on the cross. This time his effort drops wide.
37 min: Sane wriggles and shakes off Jones, who slips, but the German’s centre is too strong for Silva, who can’t believe he hasn’t been presented with a simple tap-in.
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36 min: Sunderland win a corner on the right. Januzaj swings it in and Jones rises highest, only for Caballero to save his downward header.
34 min: Sterling scoots on to a magnificent pass from Yaya Toure. But the flag’s up for offside.
33 min: “Following on from your Moyes question, here is one for you to ponder: if Sunderland went down and Pep Guardiola took over, would he get them back up again?” asks Shaun Wilkinson.
Yes.
32 min: Aguero, peripheral so far, turns on the halfway line, looks up and sees Sane and Sterling sprinting through in front of him. Before he can release the ball, though, he slips. Martin Atkinson stops a trip by O’Shea and books the Sunderland defender.
30 min: “Last fowl throw,” says Kireet in India. “Emre Can vs Leicester last week.”
29 min: Sane tries to beat Kone for pace. Nope.
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27 min: Sunderland’s defending has been very organised. City are finding it difficult to pick their way through.
25 min: When was the last time you saw a foul throw given in the Premier League?
24 min: Gael Clichy is penalised for a foul throw. Dearie me.
22 min: Billy Jones wins Sunderland’s first corner. They wanted a free-kick for a foul by Gael Clichy. Nothing doing. Januzaj’s corner is headed away. Up the other end, Leroy Sane scampers on to a pass inside Jones, but overruns the ball, much to Sunderland’s relief.
20 min: The scrappiness suits Sunderland, whose intensity is rising. Jermain Defoe turns 25 yards from goal and he doesn’t need City to invite him to shoot early. He lets fly without much backlift and the ball bounces past Caballero and against the base of the right post! Borini, following up smartly, can only direct an awkward header wide with the rebound! That was a difficult chance for the Italian. The ball came back at him very quickly.
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19 min: This is quite scrappy at the moment. Neither goalkeeper has been tested yet.
17 min: Silva takes it again, Sunderland deal with it again. Set-pieces don’t feel like the likeliest route to goal for City today.
16 min: Sunderland can’t get out of their half at the moment. They keep conceding possession cheaply. Aguero wins a corner on the left.
14 min: Raheem Sterling almost capitalises on a calamity at the back for Sunderland. Lamine Kone leaves a loose ball in the area, so does John O’Shea, and Jordan Pickford has to be alert to smother it before Sterling can snaffle it in.
13 min: A free-kick to City on the left. Silva floats it in. Sunderland head it away.
10 min: City play themselves into some bother deep on the left, but Januzaj fouls Kolarov.
8 min: City are helping themselves to a prolonged spell of possession. Sterling wins a corner on the right. Silva’s delivery is headed away. “Your question about David Moyes - absolutely they should stick with him if they go down. Sunderland is an absolute basketcase of a club that could have gone down at any time in the past five years; that they have not gone down in any one of the last few seasons beggars belief, and that luck has to run out at some point,” says Shaun Wilkinson. “Moyes is a good manager who might be the one who is in the wrong place at the wrong time, ie the season when that luck finally does run out. If they do go down, I don’t think they could find a manager better equipped to get them back up again.”
6 min: Kolarov chugs back on to the pitch after receiving treatment.
4 min: Sunderland look determined to test Manchester City at the back. Borini has a shot charged down by Kolarov, who goes down winded, and the ball spins off to the right. Jones beats Clichy too easily, storms into the area and looks for Defoe with a cutback. Stones fends him off, though, and Caballero collects the loose ball.
3 min: Willy Caballero effortlessly knocks a five-yard pass straight to Kolarov. See, what a playmaker. Kolarov lollops up the left flank, then pings a glorious raking pass from left to right towards Raheem Sterling. One-on-one with Oviedo, he tries to beat him with a backheel. Oviedo blocks it and the ball runs to Fernandinho, who crashes a shot into the top tier from 25 yards.
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2 min: Sunderland are defending from left to right in the first half. Manchester City are attacking from right to left.
And we’re off! Manchester City get the game underway, ensuring that their possession statistics in the very first second stand at a Pep-pleasing 100%! It’s all downhill from here.
Here come the teams. They stride purposefully out of the tunnel. Sunderland’s players don’t look scared at all. Relax! Everything’s going to be fine. Right. A few handshakes to get out of the way and then we’ll begin.
“No trousers?” asks Phil James. He’s had to borrow some from David Moyes.
Someone asked me earlier what Guardiola’s wearing today. B aseball cap, 1995-96 Manchester City tracksuit Grey v-neck, white shirt, skinny black tie. Pure style.
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If Sunderland go down, an eventuality which is looking increasingly likely, would you hang on to David Moyes? Would there be any value in sacking him given all the upheaval there in recent years? Wouldn’t it better to let him start afresh and build.
“No sign of ‘Nesta 2.0’ Lynden Gooch today?” says Luke Forrester. “They’re calling him the new Puyol, up here in the north east. But not even a subs appearance for ‘the American Maldini’?”
No need. Papy Djilibodji is fit.
Pre-match reading: Paul Wilson on Sergio Aguero.
Tottenham have beaten Everton 3-2 to move seven points behind Chelsea and four clear of Manchester City, who have two games in hand on Mauricio Pochettino’s collection of nutcase puppies. None of this is relevant to Sunderland.
Team news
Sunderland: Pickford; Jones, Kone, O’Shea, Oviedo; Ndong, Gibson, Larsson; Borini, Defoe, Januzaj. Subs: Mannone, Manquillo, Djilibodji, Rodwell, Khazri, Honeyman, Love.
Manchester City: Caballero; Sagna, Stones, Kolarov, Clichy; Yaya Toure, Fernandinho; Sterling, Silva, Sane; Aguero. Subs: Bravo, Otamendi, Fernando, Nolito, Iheanacho, Delph, De Bruyne.
Refz on Tour: Martin Atkinson.
Preamble
Hello. For now, there is no title race. Such a thing does not exist. But if there is going to be one this season, then Manchester City must be utterly ruthless. Any slip and that small glimpse of blue they can still just about make out in the distance will vanish from view as Chelsea sail away for good. At the moment, however, City still have a glimmer of hope. It’s unlikely, but it’s not impossible. In all likelihood City’s indifferent winter form has given them too much to do, meaning that the top four has to be their focus, but a victory over Sunderland would take them eight points behind the leaders and slightly turning up the heat on Chelsea before their visit to West Ham tomorrow.
There was a time when the Stadium of Light was threatening to become City’s bogey ground. They struggled here under both Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini, losing 1-0 on four consecutive visits. It briefly seemed that they were heading for a fifth straight defeat on Wearside when Connor Wickham gave Sunderland a 1-0 lead in December 2014. That was when City decided enough was enough, though, hitting back with four unanswered goals. Sergio Aguero was inspired that night and the striker may well fill his boots this afternoon. City won 4-1 at Sunderland in the League Cup last season and 1-0 win in the league and David Moyes’s side, rooted to the bottom of the league and six points off Crystal Palace in 17th place, treated their long-suffering fans to a shambolic 4-0 defeat to Southampton in their last home game. Still, they did get to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers in New York the other week, so every cloud and all that.
Kick-off: 4pm GMT.
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