Manchester City 3-0 Sunderland Review

Premier League GW15

Heading into this game with not only Arsenal losing to Aston Villa, but two results where you saw the team, for different reasons, struggle in the second half. You needed to see a performance, a lesson learned, and an opportunity taken to close the gap. The team delivered.

MOTM: RAYAN CHERKI

The best performance by Cherki for Manchester City this season. Settling quickly into the team. Only Nunes (8) made more ball recoveries than he did (6).

Notable Stats:

• Rayan Cherki is 2nd for goal-creating actions (8) in the Premier League this season. He's played less than 400 minutes. Every other player in the T10 has played 900+ minutes.

• Jérémy Doku has created more big chances than any other player in the Premier League this season (9). And they've all been from open-play.

• Phil Foden has more goal involvements in his last three PL matches than in the previous 21 combined.

Game Stats:

Manchester City 3-0 Sunderland

• xG: 2.42 - 0.76

• xThreat: 2.04 - 0.62

• Possession: 63.3% - 36.7%

• Field Tilt: 83.2% - 16.8%

• Penalty Box Shots: 15 - 4

• Deep Entries: 23 - 2

• PPDA: 11.6 - 14.0

• High Turnovers: 7 - 3

The most-used CB partnership for Manchester City during the 24/25 season was Dias-Akanji, with 15 games started together. This season, it's Dias-Gvardiol, already with 12 games started.

Jeremy Doku completes his 3rd full 90 minutes of the season.

Savinho, Lewis, Ait-Nouri, Ake, and Marmoush have one start in the last six games.

If you want to stay up-to-date on individual player minutes, back four combinations, underlying numbers, and more, check out the live Google sheet below. 👇

Only one change for Manchester City as Rayan Cherki came in for Tijjani Reijnders. Similar to the setup against Fulham, Haaland and Foden were ready to press the opposition's central defender on either side. They looked to force Sunderland to the left side, away from Cherki, where possible, with Haaland curving his run. Doku could then press Geertruida. Foden and Silva are tasked with closing off access to the pivots. If Foden jumps to press Ballard, Silva had to lock off Sadiki and then come across to cover that pass. Maintaining the +1 on the backline if Sunderland went long.

In possession, it was Matheus Nunes deeper as Bernardo Silva held the width on the right side. Cherki is moving inside. Same from Doku on the left side. Foden dropping deep to support where needed. You can see the value Silva provides the team, as game by game, you can shift his role around the players you want to fit in. He plays an important role pressing as well.

It was quite apparent in the first half, as much as Sunderland put little pressure on the ball, they wanted to drive them back deep before them moving it across the final third for the likes of Cherki and Foden to create chances. Only Isidor up front leaves little pressure on the backline. Traore and Mukiele are focused on doubling up on Jeremy Doku. You’re going to end up leaving lots of space for Xhaka and Sadiki to cover at the top of the box.

Ruben Dias 31' 1-0  

From out wide with Doku 2v1, back to Cherki, who makes a quick burst across the top of the box and passes to Dias. He spots the space Sunderland are leaving, takes a touch, and shoots into the top right corner. Taking a slight deflection on the way.

The space was there in the first half for these spots, but they struggled to work them towards players to shoot, and mostly looked to cross in the early parts of the first half. That is now two Premier League goals for Ruben Dias this season after he's gone three full seasons without a single goal.

Josko Gvardiol 35' 2-0  

Manchester City scored their 5th goal from a corner kick in the Premier League this season. Only Arsenal, Chelsea, and Spurs have scored more. Inswinging corner from Phil Foden to the back-post for Gvardiol to head in.

In recent games, Manchester City have pulled Doku back into the rest defence, used NOR inside the 6-yard box as a target, and packed it with the other targets in Dias, Haaland, and Gvardiol. Silva on the keeper. One of those players then starts outside, Gvardiol in this example, looking to arrive at the ball.

The team were focused in the first half, you could see the intent behind pushing Sunderland back, and the aggression in winning the ball. Had managed to get the two-goal lead but hadn’t quite opened up Sunderland like you’d have expected. Heading into the second half, you wanted to see more. I should add that for both goals, the space Sunderland left on the edge of the box was not luck, nor was the corner routine; they worked them well.

This wasn’t a game; Jeremy Doku picked up a goal or an assist, but he wasn’t far away with this shot, hitting the far post (52’). Driving back the full-back until he’s inside the box before cutting inside and curling it out of reach of the keeper. Continue to add these shots to each game, and the goals will come.

Sunderland had a couple of threatening moments in the second half. First, from a Dias mistake (53’), passing with his left foot to Nunes, the pass was jumped on by Isidor, but Donnarumma was quick out to make an excellent save. Soon after that, Xhaka had a shot his the post (55’) and the loose ball was cleared. Two moments where the momentum of the game could have shifted, but that was all Sunderland had in the second half.

Brobbey and Talbi (56’) on for Isidor and Traore. The winger did give Sunderland a better target on their left side to try to stretch the pitch when they regained the ball. Certainly a player to keep an eye on in a couple of years.

Haaland had a huge chance from Cherki (59’), dancing his way past a couple of Sunderland players to the byline and chipping the ball back over to him to volley. Shot blocked.

Phil Foden 65' 3-0  

Cherki dribbling towards the full-back, he slows right down until the defender bites and then bursts past him into the box. Using the change of pace to beat him. Cuts back at the byline and provides a rabona cross to Foden.

Haaland to the back-post and Silva to the near-post. It's an excellent movement by Foden. Drifts into the middle, keeps himself away from the central defenders, and takes a step back when he sees Cherki cut back before delivering the cross.

Not long after the third goal, Foden, Haaland, and Gvardiol were off (69’) for Reijnders, Marmoush, and Ake. No doubt, a look ahead to the midweek Champions League match against Real Madrid and tells you who he wants to be fresh for that game.

Adingra and Mundle (73’) on for Xhaka and Sadiki was a sign of the game being out of sight and Sunderland looking ahead to their next game. Both midfielders were one yellow game away from a suspension, with Newcastle (H) next.

Two late chances for City to score more, with Reijnders (74’) shooting the wrong side of the back-post, and Cherki having his shot (76’) shortly after. Savinho and Lewis (82’) came on for Cherki and Silva right towards the end of the second half, where Manchester was ultimately won for Manchester City, and Sunderland were not pushing to get back into it.

Right at the end of the game, there was a red card for Luke O’Nien (90+5’) after his challenge on Nunes, who was very lucky not to have his foot planted otherwise; we could have been looking at a leg break.

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Moving Forward

With Arsenal losing to Aston Villa, Chelsea drawing with Bournemouth, and Liverpool drawing with Leeds, this was a game Manchester City had to win. To close the gap at the top and increase the gap between others, pushing for the CL spots. It was just as important to show that the lessons from Leeds (H) and Fulham (A) were learnt in the second half.

The best chance for them came with Isidor (0.39xG) after Dias had his pass intercepted; otherwise, they kept Sunderland to very little. Keeping another clean sheet. That being said, it’s about the consistency, and that needs to follow for the next set of games. Real Madrid (A), Palace (A), Brentford (LC), and West Ham (H) before Christmas.

The most common passing pairs from the match were different combinations of Cherki, Dias, and Nunes. No player received more passes (83) or had more final third touches (58) than Cherki. Ruben Dias completed the most progressive passes (13). Matheus Nunes completed the most long passes (7).

In previous seasons, when playing against low blocks, you needed a player to have the attacking run through. We’ve seen that from David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, and Phil Foden. This was Cherki showing he’s capable of that.

Unfortunate not to score in this game after his shot hit the post, but the level Jeremy Doku is consistently delivering this season gives the team a chance to win every game. Whether it’s the shots, crosses, take-ons, or the passes into the box. It doesn’t have to be the same way each game.

In the recent games, the team has scored several goals from set pieces. They’ve changed the corner routine to add NOR inside the box as another target, and have seemingly set it up to get the most from Gvardiol in the air. Covered in the thread below. 👇

Here is a look at the percentage of total team PL goals scored by Erling Haaland after each game week. You can clearly see the period of the season during which there was discussion on Manchester City being too reliant on him for goals and winning games. In the last three Premier League games, they’ve scored 11 goals, and Haaland only has one of those.

Phil Foden has 6 Premier League goals this season, the second highest for the team. Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol have chipped in with 2 each. The chances have absolutely been there for Reijnders (2), Doku (1), O’Reilly (1) and Cherki (1) to have scored more, and I think we’ll see that in the next few games.

There are plenty of benefits to playing Phil Foden in midfield; one of those is unlocking his passing range. Whether it’s the through balls, switches out to the winger, or long balls forward to full-backs running into space. His progressive passing distance per game this season is 178.9 yds. The nearest previous season is 24/25 with 132.7 yds.

Next up for Manchester City is Real Madrid in the Champions League. The toughest match for the team in the league phase. Losing to Leverkusen puts much more pressure on this game, but a draw would be more than fine heading into the final two games. It’s a big opportunity for a statement win away from home.