Showing posts with label Sunderland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sunderland. Show all posts
Premier League, Etihad Stadium – Manchester City 3 (Kolarov 5, Aguero 60, Milner 89) Sunderland 0.
Manchester City got back to winning ways in the Premier League with a commanding 3-0 win over Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium.
Aleksandr Kolarov’s vicious free kick got the champions off to the perfect start five minutes in, and though they spurned a raft of chances, substitute Sergio Aguero did eventually double the lead on the hour.
It could easily have been a landslide win for the home side, who made it 30 victories in their last 33 home games in the Premier League with the result, but in the end they managed only one more, with Milner’s 89th minute free kick going straight through Mignolet.
City move up provisionally to second after the win, and extend their unbeaten start to the season to seven games with perhaps their most convincing display of the season so far.
Roberto Mancini rang the changes – seven of them from their midweek Champions League match – but most surprising of them was the absence of captain Vincent Kompany.
Mancini subsequently confirmed the Belgium defender was suffering an injury, handing a first start of the season to Micah Richards in partnership with Joleon Lescott.
The nerves were quickly settled as by City racing into an early lead.
Carlos Cuellar, fit from injury and the only Sunderland change to the side which had beaten Wigan last weekend, marked his return with a dreadful sliding tackle on Carlos Tevez.
Kolarov and Mario Balotelli debated who should take the set piece from the left – the Serbian won that battle, then dispatched it left-footed past Simon Mignolet at the near post.
Sunderland, who claimed four points out of six against the champions in the corresponding fixture last year, responded well enough, with Stephane Sessegnon going closest with a half-chance on the volley.
But City’s class told, and as the half wore on they went close on several occasions.
Pablo Zabaleta pounced on a loose ball 20 minutes in, only to see his shot smothered by Mignolet, while Tevez dragged the rebound wide.
Balotelli, victim of some nasty challenges from Craig Gardner, almost turned in a low centre from the right-hand side half an hour in, while Adam Johnson, making his first appearance against his former club, very nearly played in former team-mate Tevez with a terrible crossfield pass.
Sunderland rode out the storm and made it to half time without sustaining further damage.
But despite a spirited start to the second half, with Stephen Fletcher seeing a well-struck volley blocked, it was City who set the pace.
Richards was on the end of every set piece – that he did not end up on the scoresheet owed everything to some desperate goal-line defending from Danny Rose and some sharp saves from Mignolet.
Balotelli had another gilt-edged chance too, but could not get a touch on Kolarov’s low centre just before he made way for Aguero.
Five minutes after his arrival, the Argentine notched his 25th Premier League goal, Kolarov again the provider, with a first-time shot at the near post.
Tevez had further chances, as did the effervescent Kolarov, while David Silva struck the woodwork with Mignolet out of position.
Milner did eventually manage the third, though Mignolet, who had otherwise had a good game, let himself down with the free kick from a narrow angle.
Mancini had insisted in midweek that he knew how to solve City’s problems after a slow start to the season – and on this showing, the Italian was right.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Aleksandr Kolarov (Manchester City) – With not too much to do in defence, Kolarov was given freedom on the wing. Scoring one and setting up another, he was a handful for Sunderland.
Premier League, Stadium of Light - Sunderland 1 (Fletcher, 29) Liverpool 1 (Suarez, 71).
Liverpool remain without a win after four games of the Premier League season despite dominating in a 1-1 draw at Sunderland's Stadium of Light.
Brendan Rodgers's side rescued a point from the evening courtesy of Luis Suarez's composed finish on 71 minutes, but will be scratching their heads wondering how they did not manage to depart with the win.
Sunderland somehow remain unbeaten in the Premier League this term courtesy of Steven Fletcher's third goal in two starts for the home side since his £14 million transfer from Wolverhampton Wanderers during the transfer window.
The last time Liverpool failed to win any of their first four league matches in a top flight season was in 1911-12.
Sunderland have not won in their last 11 Premier League matches, equalling Martin O’Neill’s longest run as manager in the division without a victory, which was set between November 2006 and January 2007 when he was at Aston Villa.
They will be more than content with this point after spending most of it hemmed in deep in their own half.
The home side were without Adam Johnson due to a thigh injury while Liverpool made two changes as Martin Kelly and Jonjo Shelvey replaced Jose Enrique and Nuri Sahin.
In a week blighted by the horrendous Hillsborough revelations, Liverpool responded to the emotion of the occasion by producing an excellent performance in the circumstances that must have pleased their travelling support with Raheem Sterling very much to the fore.
Sunderland moved ahead with their only real attack of meaning in the first period as Fletcher swooped ahead of Martin Skrtel on 29 minutes to slip the ball home from Craig Gardner's ball across the face of goal.
Sterling played provider for Liverpool to equalise with a delicate cross into the area. The ball broke kindly off home substitute Titus Bramble for Suarez, who had been booked in the first period for diving to try to win a penalty, to finish with Simon Mignolet well beaten.
Mignolet was a busy figure in the home goal throughout the night as he made saves from Shevley and Fabio Borini while Glen Johnson hit the bar and Steven Gerrard a post before Suarez eventually found his range to restore parity.
Liverpool will aim for their first win of the Premier League season when they host Manchester United at Anfield a week on Sunday.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Raheem Sterling (Liverpool) – A real find for Liverpool and was a constant menace as Liverpool spent large swathes of the match camped in the home half.
Arsenal began life after Robin van Persie with a frustrating 0-0 draw against Sunderland in their opening match of the new Premier League season at the Emirates Stadium.
Santi Cazorla had an impressive debut for the London side but another recent arrival, striker Olivier Giroud, missed a great chance to score his first goal for the club and seal the victory with 10 minutes remaining.
The stalemate was the third time in as many years that the Gunners have begun their campaign by only picking up one point, and it is also the third goalless draw in the last five Premier League games at the Emirates.
With their departed captain and top scorer preparing to make his Manchester United debut on Monday, Arsenal fans were given their first competitive glimpse of the future of their attack. New signings Lukas Podolski and Cazorla both started with their third summer acquisition, Giroud, on the bench.
The presence of those new star names on the teamsheet was cause for optimism among Arsenal fans, but that was more than offset by the absence of midfielder Alex Song from the matchday squad amid reports that a move to Barcelona is in the offing.
For their part, Sunderland gave a debut to Carlos Cuellar at right-back, while striker Louis Saha was only named on the bench having completed his move to Wearside earlier in the week.
Arsenal completely controlled the first half, enjoying 70 per cent of the possession, but it was Sunderland who had the first chance of the game after five minutes. James McClean was played into the box on the left and his shot from an angle was blocked by Wojciech Szczesny. Arsenal immediately countered, and Cazorla galloped forward before firing in a shot from 20 yards that Simon Mignolet parried with an outstretched arm.
That was the first significant action of a highly influential debut for Cazorla. The Spaniard struck a low shot just wide after both he and Podolski went to meet Gervinho's cross, crossed for Theo Walcott to head over the bar and generally provided a good link between midfield and the front three.
Abou Diaby, starting in the missing Song's stead, forced a good low save from Mignolet with an effort from range, but they ended the half with just two shots on target, the same as Sunderland.
The second half followed much the same pattern as the first, with most of the action in the Sunderland half as the visitors did their best to keep Arsenal at bay.
Cazorla volleyed wide after one of many searing runs into the box from Gervinho saw a deflected shot fall for him, before Theo Walcott hit the side-netting at the end of another promising move.
Midway through the second half Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger replaced Podolski – who had been tightly marked throughout – with Giroud. The French striker, who finished joint top-scorer in Ligue 1 last season as Montpellier won the title, did well to connect with Karl Jenkinson's cross with a side-footed volley on the turn, but he could not guide it on target.
If he could have been forgiven for that miss, then his next chance will have made the realisation of life without Van Persie all the more sobering. With 81 minutes on the clock, Giroud timed his run well to meet Cazorla's through ball, but with only Mignolet to beat he fired wide of the target.
That miss was to prove costly, as the final whistle came without any more opportunities as clear as that, and Arsenal finished the day having not won any of their last four home games.
It was under special circumstances maybe but for us it was important to get a win against a big side to strengthen the belief of the squad and continue our march forward.
We showed intelligence and produced the needed performance against ten men when Manchester City had Dedryck Boyata sent off early in the game. From my view on the bench it looked like a deserved red card; I don't think the referee had an option.
After the sending off it became a bit electric. We got some yellow cards but then it was important for us not to get a second yellow.
I asked the players at half time to focus on playing in a positive way and to try to score a second goal - the idea was to try and get us to focus on football and not just defending our advantage. You could see that for the whole game as long as it was not 2-0 we played with the feeling that 'we need to win, we need to win' and there was a little bit of restriction in our game. After we made it 2-0 it became easier.
We missed a penalty of course and you thought back to the Sunderland game when we missed from the spot and then drew the game. On Sunday it was the reverse and overall I am very pleased because we look like we have matured.
How have we matured? In terms of negotiating in an intelligent way the difficulties of the game. That means not getting a red card on Sunday, being patient when that was needed and I think collectively we dominated the game.
It was our first win in ten games against the 'big' clubs and I can't explain to you why but it is true. In some games we were close to winning but in the end we just lost. For example at Chelsea we lost 2-0 - when you watch the game again it's difficult to understand how we lost the game apart from the fact that they took two great chances.
Now we have won a 'big' game I hope that will give us the belief and the confidence to transfer that into other games.
