Manchester City 5-3 Sunderland had eight goals, three City leads before half-time and a Sunderland hat-trick that still ended in defeat. City have now won all five of their Premier League games under Enzo Maresca, and after Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton on Saturday they are three points clear at the top.
Key moments
Enzo Fernandez put City ahead in the 9th minute with a free kick from a tight angle that beat Robin Roefs. Brian Brobbey levelled in the 12th. Rayan Cherki restored the lead in the 29th, and Brobbey equalised again in the 33rd.
Antoine Semenyo scored in the 43rd minute to make it 3-2 at the break. City had led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 in the first half. Opta says that has happened in only seven Premier League matches.
Semenyo added his second in the 57th minute. Brobbey pulled it back to 4-3 two minutes later, completing his hat-trick. With City 4-3 up, Ruben Dias cleared off the line to keep the lead.
Erling Haaland settled it in the 81st minute. He had missed an open goal in the first half. The goal also completed a list: Haaland has now scored against all 25 Premier League teams he has faced, and Sunderland were the last of them. In his three previous games against Sunderland he had no goals from three shots.
The hat-trick nobody wanted
Brobbey is the sixth player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick and finish on the losing side. Each of his three goals brought Sunderland level or within one, and there were no points to show for it. Enzo Le Fee, Thomas Meunier and Nilson Angulo set them up in turn, according to Sky Sports, so Sunderland created their chances from several angles.
That is what makes the result hard to read. City scored five and still had to survive a visiting side that kept coming back. A team that concedes three at home and wins is doing something right in attack and something to fix at the back, and the table shows both.
What it means for the table
City are first with 15 points from five games. They have scored 13 goals, second only to Brighton’s 16, and conceded five. Three of those five came on Sunday.
Arsenal are second on 12 points, with four wins and one defeat. Brighton are third on 10 with a goal difference of +11. City’s lead is three points. It is five games into the season, so that is a good start, not a title.
Sunderland are 14th on four points from one win, one draw and three defeats. They have scored six and conceded 10. They are level on points with Crystal Palace and Aston Villa and one point above the bottom three, where Coventry City are 18th on three.
Looking ahead
The international break is next. Sunderland host Brighton at the Stadium of Light on Saturday 10 October, kick-off 3:00pm. A day later, City travel to Anfield to face Liverpool on Sunday 11 October, kick-off 4:30pm BST, live on Sky Sports. Arsenal, in the meantime, play Leeds United on the Saturday.
We would not read a season from one afternoon, but the numbers are clear. City’s attack is producing goals at a rate only Brighton have beaten, and their defence gave up three in a single game.
No comment