Ake and Savinho to start New Year's Day clash with Sunderland | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made two changes to his City side for tonight's Premier League trip to Sunderland.

Men's Team

I'm so proud of how we bounced back from adversity - Pep

Nathan Ake replaces Josko Gvardiol at the heart of the defence while Savinho comes in for Tijjani Reijnders from the side that won at Nottingham Forest last Saturday.

Both Ake and Savinho are making their first Premier League starts since October.

Bumper January to come at the Etihad!

It’s our maiden trip to Sunderland since 2016/17 when the Black Cats were relegated from the top-flight.

This game marks the start of City’s 2026 and a bumper January but Guardiola’s team have form at this time of year, winning our opening league match of the calendar year at the last 13 times of asking.

Teams

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias, Ake, O’Reilly, Nico, Bernardo (C), Savinho, Foden, Cherki, Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Doku, Rodri, Gvardiol, Khusanov, Mukasa, Lewis, R. Heskey

SUNDERLAND XI: Roefs, Hume, Mukiele, Alderete, Cirkin, Xhaka (C), Geertruida, Le Fee, Mayenda, Adingra, Brobbey

Subs: Patterson, Neil, Rigg, Isidor, Mundle, Hjelde, H. Jones, O’Nien, Tutierov

Men's Team

Pep’s approach to football is fascinating – Gvardiol

Tactics

Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal will be protected by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Nico O’Reilly.

Nico and Bernardo Silva look likely to be the deepest midfielders, with Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki and Savinho operating in the spaces ahead of them.

They’ll all be in support of Erling Haaland, who is one strike away from his 150th goal for City.

Men's Team

Analysing Sunderland ahead of our New Year’s Day meeting

Quick turnaround

Tonight’s encounter is an odd quirk of the fixture list as it’s less than a month since we beat the Black Cats at the Etihad.

Every Premier League match over this New Year window has been the reverse of a game from early December and that presents its own challenges and storylines around this particular matchweek.

Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol and Phil Foden got the goals at the Etihad on 6 December but Guardiola spoke yesterday of his memories of the Stadium of Light from 2016/17 and how difficult the crowd can make it for away sides.

Men's Team

Score Like an Egyptian

AFCON influence

It’s hard to truly anticipate how this Sunderland side will play, given they have six players in Morocco for the ongoing African Cup of Nations.

Several of them are key figures in the electric start to their campaign but they have figured reasonably well since that contingent left, drawing with Brighton and Leeds.

City also have Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush at the tournament, as well as an injury list that’s lengthier than at any previous point in the campaign.

That’s why we continue to see several Academy prospects on the bench, but Pep has spoken of his trust in the brilliant work our youth setup does to prepare players for the biggest stage so would likely have few qualms with throwing them in if required.

Match stats

Sunderland have lost their last three Premier League home games against City, having won four in a row against us at the Stadium of Light before this.

Since drawing 2-2 in April 2014, we have won our last seven Premier League matches against Sunderland, last enjoying a longer winning run against them between December 2002 and December 2009 (nine wins).

This will be the third New Year’s Day meeting between Sunderland and City in the Premier League. The Black Cats won 1-0 at home in 2012, while we won 3-2 at the Etihad in 2015.

Sunderland haven’t lost their first league game in any of the last seven calendar years (W3 D4) since a 1-0 home loss to Barnsley in 2018 in the Championship.

We have won our first league game in 18 of the last 19 calendar years, including the last 13 in a row. The only exception in this run was a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland on New Year’s Day 2012.

We have scored in our last 32 Premier League matches in January since a 4-0 defeat to Everton in 2017, netting 28 goals in our last eight in January (W7 D1). It’s the longest run of scoring in January games in top-flight history, while across the Football League only Crewe Alexandra between 1960 and 1972 have had a longer run (36 in a row).

We have lost just one of our last 30 away Premier League matches against promoted clubs (W23 D6), losing 3-2 to Norwich City in September 2019. We’re unbeaten in our last 17 since that defeat at Carrow Road (W14 D3).

We have won our last six Premier League matches, our longest run in a single campaign since winning our final nine en route to the league title in 2023-24.

This will be Erling Haaland’s first Premier League match at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light – the Norwegian has scored at 22 of the other 23 venues he’s played at (inc. the Etihad), failing only in three games at Anfield.

Rayan Cherki has been involved in eight goals in his last nine Premier League appearances for City (1 goal, 7 assists), both scoring and assisting in a game for the first time against Nottingham Forest last time out.

City v Brighton tickets on general sale

We welcome an entertaining Brighton side to the Etihad at 19:30 (UK) on Wednesday 7 January.

And with tickets now on general sale, you could be there to see it!

Fans can now claim three tickets each, with adults from £30 and concessions as low as £15.

Or make it a night to remember with hospitality packages starting from just £180 per person and a wide range of experiences available to suit your budget.

Kick off the new year in style!