After two nerve-jangling wins Manchester City put in their best performance of the season against Sunderland | OneFootball

Manchester City won their third successive Premier League match with their 3-nil win over Sunderland. City’s previous two wins over Leeds and Fulham came after nerve-jangling matches where Pep Guardiola’s side simply did what they had to do to pick up three points. Yesterday’s win for City over a high-flying Sunderland came off the back of arguably Manchester City’s best performance of the season. Everything that Pep Guardiola expects from his team was on full display yesterday at the Etihad Stadium.

The control that defines the play of Manchester City was on full display against Sunderland.

Yesterday’s performance from Pep Guardiola’s side was their most complete performance of the season to date. In the first half, Manchester City dictated the terms of the match and limited Sunderland to barely any chances. City got their reward through goals from Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol in the 31st and 35th minutes of the first half. Pep Guardiola’s side dropped Sunderland deep with their possession play and were quick to regain possession when they lost it. All of the hallmarks of a Manchester City side playing their style of play were there in the first half.

Sunderland had to come out and play in the second half of yesterday’s match. Facing a 2-nil deficit, Régis Le Bris’ side had to get back into the game. Outside of a 10-minute spell where the game threatened to resemble Manchester City’s wins over Leeds and Fulham, where Gianluigi Donnarumma made a fine save from Wilson Isidor and Granit Xhaka hit the post, City did control the second half of their win over Sunderland. They dominated possession for large portions of the second half and outside of Phil Foden’s 65th minute goal, created several other opportunities to score.

Everything that typifies Manchester City at their best was on full display at the Etihad Stadium against Sunderland. That was a major positive to come from a crucial win for Pep Guardiola’s side yesterday.

Pep Guardiola and Rayan Cherki were thrilled with Manchester City’s performance.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said after his team’s dominant win over Sunderland that his team’s performance at the Etihad was their best for the season. So far this season City have been dominant for portions of matches but not the entire game. But they put it all together yesterday apart from a ten minute spell after halftime. Guardiola had this to say on his team’s display yesterday: “In my experience, to win the Premier League, it’s about the consistency. The consistency comes from the way you play and how much you grow whether you are 2-1 behind or 4-1 in front.”

“Today maybe has been one of the best performances of the season for 95 minutes. We had good momentum for the second half.”

“It started from Wolves, the first half was really good, the second half we suffered. We did good things against Fulham in the first half and stopped in the second half. We talked about that and the reasons why.”

“It’s not about specific movements defensively or offensively. Today, we played for 90 minutes against a team who have done well so far against top teams. We concede one chance today but apart from that it was a good performance.”

Manchester City’s man-of-the-match, Rayan Cherki, said that he and his teammates were proud of their performance against Sunderland at the Etihad. He told the media after the match: “We are very proud. We worked all week for that. The team played vey well. We defended well, we attacked well. For that we are very proud.”

“We worked a lot for taking a lot of risks, for scoring a lot of goals, and don’t concede a goal.”

“Today it’s unbelievable because we scored three goals and we didn’t concede a goal. For that we are very proud.”

Summary.

After two scratchy wins over Leeds and Fulham, Manchester City went up a gear to beat Sunderland at the Etihad yesterday. It was Manchester City’s most complete performance of the season and it showed that this City team is beginning to take shape as the season enters a critical phase.