Sunderland 0 Manchester City 1
Manuel Pellegrini’s extended farewell to Manchester City began on a winning note but the Chilean will surely enjoy easier evenings before making way for Pep Guardiola in the summer.
Thanks to Sergio Agüero’s first-half winner City’s title challenge remains very much alive but, if Sunderland can keep playing with this sort of sheer bloody-minded determination, a team who should have claimed at least a draw here will not deserve to be relegated.
The verve and vibrance of a quite formidable second-half attacking performance from Sam Allardyce’s players increasingly stretched Pellegrini’s side to the limit, with the home debutant Wahbi Khazri frequently fazing his defence.
A re-vamped Sunderland showcased a new-look 4-1-4-1 formation featuring Jan Kirchhoff, their new £750,000 central defensive signing from Bayern Munich, in an anchoring role behind the midfield.
Another January signing, Lamine Koné, endured an early fright when he very nearly directed Jesus Navas’s cross into his own net. Koné though quickly recovered, endearing himself to his new public – if not Allardyce – by sashaying down the right wing before unleashing a teasing cross which Martín Demichelis was forced to hack clear.
Sunderland had not begun too badly but local optimism took quite a dent when Yaya Touré and Navas combined to create Agüero’s 17th goal of the campaign and 12th in his last 10 Premier League appearances.
If Agüero looked every inch the expert marksman as he toe-poked Navas’s left-wing cross into the roof of the net from close range, Billy Jones looked a thoroughly wrong-footed right back. Attempting to make amends Jones launched into a challenge as Agüero shot, his studs raking the striker down the back of a leg.
City fans – not to mention Pellegrini – must have feared yet another serious injury but, following a few minutes’ treatment, Agüero was back on his feet sporting a badly torn, blood stained sock.
Undeterred, he might have scored a second had his curling shot not taken a slight deflection off Yann M’Vila. Significantly that opening was conjured by 19-year-old Kelechi Iheanacho, who showed why he had been preferred to Raheem Sterling by holding John O’Shea off quite brilliantly before supplying Agüero.
Assisted by some at-times dazzling footwork on Iheanacho’s part, Touré and David Silva were starting to dictate matters but Sunderland had their moments and were far from incapable of disrupting this sometimes mesmerising visiting rhythm.
Going forward Kirchoff enjoyed a couple of bright moments while Koné could well have equalised if only he had not made an absolute hash of a free, close-range header following Jeremain Lens’ excellent free kick.
Bar accidentally catching Demichelis painfully in the mouth with a stray elbow Jermain Defoe had been having a fairly quiet evening, but all that changed when he seamlessly turned his marker before dispatching a shot which was destined for the bottom corner until Joe Hart performed acrobatic wonders to dive low and divert the ball. Hats off too to the England goalkeeper for the rapid recovery and smart positioning which enabled him to prevent Jones from scoring on the rebound.
Aware that, for all City’s elegant menace, Vito Mannone had not really had that much to do, Allardyce perhaps sensed it might not take all that much to change the narrative. He duly introduced Khazri, his £9m signing from Bordeaux, at half time, replacing the injured Lens.
With Pellegrini possibly suspecting Iheanacho might not be quite defensively streetwise enough for a potential second-half Sunderland rally, he sent Fernando on in his stead.
Sure enough Allardyce’s players pretty much threw the kitchen sink at City’s defence with the overlapping Patrick van Aanholt a little unfortunate to see his excellent left wing cross fractionally evade the waiting Defoe.
If the geometry of City’s short passing was often easy on the eye, Kirchhoff was growing into the game and Silva and company could not quite find a way to really unhinge Koné and O’Shea.
At the start of this season Sunderland would probably have folded after falling behind but , although they remain second bottom, Allardyce has gradually imbued them with a new found resilience – not to mention edge. Indeed Jones was booked for a nasty tackle on Silva and when Defoe and Nicolas Otamendi squared up to each other in the wake of an aerial challenge things were turning spiky.
The mood was summed up by a heavyweight collision between Touré and Koné near the halfway line but Sunderland retained sufficient focus for Jones to prompt another fantastic save from Hart with an unerring 25-yard shot.
Hart subsequently did extremely well to divert Khazri’s shot before looking relieved to see O’Shea blast the rebound high over the bar. He would save adroitly again from Khazri while Otamendi cleared Kirchhoff’s header off the line before the final whistle but City had done enough to remain on Leicester’s coat-tails, sitting just three points behind the leaders.
Guardian services
