Manchester City 3 Sunderland 0: City player ratings as Rayan Cherki announces himself to the Premier League | OneFootball

Manchester City 3 (Ruben Dias 31, Josko Gvardiol 35, Phil Foden 65′)

Sunderland 0

Here are the City player ratings as Manchester City beat a quality and well-managed Sunderland side 3-nil at the Etihad. First-half goals from Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol set City on their way. Phil Foden scored a 65th minute header to put the game to bed which came after Rayan Cherki produced an assist that will go down in Premier League history and highlights.

The City player ratings reflect how well Pep Guardiola’s side performed against a team that seemed well built to expose Manchester City’s frailties. Perhaps the biggest story to come out City’s win was the performance of Rayan Cherki and the fact he introduced himself to the Premier League in style.

City player ratings

Gianluigi Donnarumma-7/10: Made one big save early in the second half and had very little to do outside of that. Donnarumma dealt with Sunderland’s set pieces well in a good performance from the Italian international. 

Matheus Nunes-7/10: Did what he had to do well at right-back. 

Ruben Dias-7.5/10: Scored Manchester City’s opening goal, and outside of one mistake, he put in a proper leaders display. 

Josko Gvardiol-7.5/10: Much better today from Josko Gvardiol. Aside from his goal, he was better in possession and defended well when required. 

Nico O’Reilly-8/10: I thought Nico O’Reilly was superb. Got forward superbly well and did his job defensively with minimal fuss.

Nico-8.5/10: A quality showing from Nico in the heart of Manchester City’s midfield. His performance gave Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden and company the platform to shine.

Bernardo Silva-7.5/10: Did the grunt work for his team, which allowed his teammates to prosper. 

Phil Foden-8.5/10: Scored his fifth goal in three matches and grabbed an assist before he was taken off. A good performance again from Foden.

Rayan Cherki-10/10: For me, that was Rayan Cherki’s best performance as a Manchester City player. He picked up two assists, one came from a ridiculous piece of skill, but his overall performance from the 1st minute until he was substituted was utterly brilliant. He seems to have grasped the concepts required to play in a Pep Guardiola side.

Jeremy Doku-7/10: Had his moments and was a constant threat to the Sunderland defence. 

Erling Haaland-6/10: Had one shot cleared off the line but spent most of the match on the periphery of proceedings. 

Substitutes

Tijjani Reijnders-6/10: Spurned a good opportunity to make it 4-nil on the day for City.

Nathan Ake-6. 5/10: Did his job well at the back after replacing Josko Gvardiol.

Omar Marmoush-6/10: Got into several dangerous positions up front, but nothing came of them.

Savinho-N/A: Not on long enough to mark.

Rico Lewis-N/A: Not on long enough to mark.