Manchester City will look to extend their winning start to the season to five Premier League games when they welcome Sunderland to the Etihad this afternoon.
City, who have also won in the Champions League and EFL Cup in an impressive start, will be expected to overcome the Wearsiders but boss Enzo Maresca was sounding a cautious tone beforehand.
“I watched them the last two days, three or four games. I know them, how strong they are, and have the feeling we need a top performance to beat them, be 100% to win. I watched the game live against Arsenal [in last Saturday’s 2-0 defeat], then again the last two days. If you watch, you can realise how strong they are. I think personally that they didn’t deserve to lose that game,” he said.
“They are very strong, very well coached. They already have time together, you see what they want to do on and off the ball. My feeling is on Sunday it will be the toughest game since the start of the season. If you watch them, you are not surprised [at how well they have done], because you will realise how good they are, on the ball, off the ball, how aggressive they are, the amount of duels that they win every game.
Sunderland will make the trip in confident mood after the euphoria of their successful return to Europe in midweek. And boss Regis Le Bris, whose side beat AZ Alkmaar 1-0, was eager to stress the quality of his squad rather than worry too much about their expensively assembled opponents.
“Manchester City have players everywhere,” smiled the Frenchman. “So if we start looking at their strength, we can’t play. It’s better to focus on us, how can we manage their threat and how we can create threat as well? I think we are getting better in this area.”
Recent Form & Stats for Manchester City v Sunderland
- City striker Erling Haaland has faced 25 Premier League teams and scored against 24 of them. Sunderland are the odd one out.
- City have kept a clean sheet in each of their last four matches in all competitions
- City have lost just two of their last 30 Premier League games
- Sunderland have not won any of their 14 Premier League trips to Manchester City
- City won the corresponding fixture last season 3-0
Recent Results : Manchester City
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League Cup
Manchester City
MCI
W 5 – 0 2026-09-17
Norwich
NOR
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Premier League
Manchester United
MUN
W 0 – 1 2026-09-13
Manchester City
MCI
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UEFA Champions League
FC Porto
POR
W 0 – 2 2026-09-08
Manchester City
MCI
-
Premier League
Manchester City
MCI
W 1 – 0 2026-09-05
Coventry
COV
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Premier League
Crystal Palace
CRY
W 1 – 4 2026-08-28
Manchester City
MCI
Recent Results : Sunderland
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UEFA Europa League
Sunderland
SUN
W 1 – 0 2026-09-16
AZ Alkmaar
ALK
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Premier League
Sunderland
SUN
L 0 – 2 2026-09-12
Arsenal
ARS
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League Cup
Sunderland
SUN
W 1 – 0 2026-09-08
Hull City
HUL
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Premier League
Brentford
BRE
D 1 – 1 2026-09-05
Sunderland
SUN
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Premier League
Sunderland
SUN
W 1 – 0 2026-08-30
Fulham
FUL
Where to Watch Manchester City v Sunderland: TV and online streams
Manchester City versus Sunderland kicks off at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. You can watch the game as part of Sky Sports’ Super Sunday and stream via the Sky Go app.
Global broadcast details can be found at premierleague.com.
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