Manchester City Brought Back Down To Earth

Who would have thought it? After dropping two points at home to Birmingham and gifting West Bromich Albion a win at the Hawthorns I think even the most optimistic of Sunderland fans would not have bet on us beating Manchester City yesterday.

There’s no doubt that Man City had the better of the first half but they managed to spurn the few good chances they had. Most notably was the embarrassing miss from Carlos Tevez. Man City hit Sunderland on the break, as Yaya Toure decended on the Sunderland goal with three on one City looked a certainty to score only for Tevez to receive an intelligent pass from Toure and sky the ball straight over the bar. It was an open goal and really looked harder to miss but luck was obviously on Sunderland’s side.

In the second half Sunderland looked a different team. They battled for every ball, passed well and attacked with intent. However for all of Sunderland’s play it was Manchester City who again had the better of the chances. Adebayor’s clever flick from a Manchester City corner was superbly saved by Sunderland’s new keeper Simon Mignolet.

The fans were tremendous yet again, really getting behind the side and making it even more difficult for the Man City players to get a foothold on the game. In comparison the Manchester City fans were rather subdued with a small and rather out-dated array of chants to offer.

As time ran out, it was Sunderland who were firmly on top and continued to attack the flanks with pace. Ahmed “Elmo” Mohamady had the beating of Gareth Barry who was operating on the left hand side. As the clock ticked on and we entered injury time, Elmo got hold of the ball, flicked it past Barry (yet again…he really made him look average) causing him to slip over and crossed the ball in for Darren Bent who was clumsily grappled to the floor in the penalty area by Micah Richards. A penalty was the only outcome. At the time I couldn’t believe it, we had managed to keep ourselves in the game and were rewarded at the very death. It was quite an emotional moment as Darren Bent stepped up and smashed the ball underneath Hart, effectively marking an end to the game and winning all three points for Sunderland.

1-0 the Full-Time score.

I thought the players were great, Cattermole was back to the Cattermole of old, covering ground, constantly harrassing the City players and constantly regaining possession. Richardson was very good and is beginning to look like the left-back we all want him to be. I thought the stand out performance come from Titus Bramble who was dominant at the back and didn’t really put a foot wrong all game.

Next up, a tough tie away to Wigan.