Outstanding Aguero and Co. force Sunderland to chase shadows

SO much for history repeating itself then. Sunderland’s remarkable run against Manchester City was always going to end at some stage, but few would have anticipated it coming to quite as abrupt a finish.

With Sergio Aguero outstanding, and the likes of Samir Nasri, Jesus Navas and Pablo Zabaleta offering eye-catching support, the reigning Premier League champions produced a performance that was vastly superior to the one offered up by their principal title rivals, Chelsea, on the same ground four days earlier.

Aguero’s two goals, both of which came courtesy of excellent finishes, bookended City’s goalscoring, with the in-form Argentinian also turning provider to set up Stevan Jovetic. With Zabaleta also finding the net early in the second half, Sunderland were on the ropes for long periods in marked contrast to the competitiveness of their display at the weekend.

The Black Cats actually led thanks to Connor Wickham’s fortuitous opener, with the striker diverting Zabaleta’s attempted clearance into the net. But they found themselves sliced open at will, and while plenty of Premier League sides would have struggled to contain City, such was the quality of the visitors’ attacking, Sunderland continue to exhibit an alarming tendency to sporadically capitulate.

Their attempts to close down City’s attacking players were thoroughly unsuccessful, and by the final whistle, they were a bedraggled bunch chasing shadows. Perhaps October’s Southampton aberration was not such a complete anomaly after all.

Sunderland’s run of four previous 1-0 home wins over City looked pretty inexplicable at the final whistle, and Manuel Pellegrini was right to dismiss any notion of the Wearsiders enjoying a psychological stranglehold over his players.

Of rather more relevance at kick off was the memory of Saturday’s goalless draw with Chelsea, a game that extended Sunderland’s fine recent record against the leading sides in the league and showcased a tactical blueprint that looked ripe for repeating against a City side who remain six points adrift of the Blues.

Another tight and tactical encounter? Not exactly. The opening quarter of last night’s game contained more goalmouth incident than the whole of Saturday’s match put together and suggested that Manchester City are more slick and inventive in the final third than Chelsea, but also more susceptible to mistakes at the back.

With Wickham and Will Buckley, who replaced the injured Adam Johnson, regularly switching flanks, Sunderland’s attacking players enjoyed a surprising amount of space from the off, and while the hosts hardly committed a host of men forward, their attacking moves immediately asked questions of an untried City defence that featured little-known Belgian Dedryck Boyata.

Jack Rodwell, facing his former club for the first time following his summer move from the Etihad, should have opened the scoring in the fifth minute, but having held back his run to meet Buckley’s pull back, his scuffed goalbound effort was blocked by Zabaleta.

Zabaleta was also heavily involved when Sunderland threatened quarter-of-an-hour later, but this time the full-back was powerless to prevent the Black Cats taking the lead, indeed to a large extent, he was responsible for the deadlock being broken.

Seb Larsson’s through ball released Wickham through the middle, but Zabaleta looked to have recovered his ground sufficiently to be able to make a covering challenge. Instead, his somewhat desperate lunge deflected the ball onto Wickham’s shin and the rebound hurtled beyond a helpless Joe Hart.

The initial thought was that another 1-0 win was on the cards, but a repeat scoreline was ruled out within less than two minutes.

Aguero had been relatively quiet to that stage, but the Argentinian maestro doesn’t even need half a chance to make an impact and his brilliance was only too evident as City levelled.

Anticipating that Sebastian Coates had strayed marginally out of position, Aguero nudged the ball past the centre-half into the gap he had left behind. It was still hard to see how he could score, but with minimal back-lift, City’s talisman lashed an unstoppable finish past Costel Pantilimon.

Aguero’s movement and vision ensured Coates was run ragged as he made his first Premier League start in a Sunderland shirt, but the Liverpool loanee was hardly the only home player struggling to contain City’s attacking verve in general, and the genius of Aguero in particular.

Navas hammered a low shot across the face of goal, Nasri turned and shot over from 25 yards and Aguero dragged another dangerous effort narrowly past the post.

A second goal for the visitors looked inevitable, and it duly arrived courtesy of another magical Aguero moment six minutes before the break. Yaya Toure fired the ball into the forward, whose deft flick with his back to goal fell perfectly for Jovetic to slot home.

Sunderland were undone again when Aguero danced past three defenders moments later, but the hosts might have entered the interval level had referee Craig Pawson awarded a stoppage-time penalty when Rodwell’s header appeared to strike Fernandinho on the arm.

Instead, they fell further behind within ten minutes of the restart as City penned another chapter in their expanding catalogue of picture-perfect goals.

Having contributed to Sunderland’s opener, Zabaleta more than atoned for his lapse as a slick one-two with Nasri allowed him to ghost into the area past Lee Cattermole. Few opposition goalkeepers are as imposing as Pantilimon, but Zabaleta calmly allowed his former City team-mate to drop to the floor before effortlessly dinking the ball over him. On a night of fine moves, it was the best of the lot.

A fourth goal arrived with 19 minutes left, Aguero stealing ahead of a flat-footed Santiago Vergini to guide home substitute James Milner’s low cross.