In the recent years, there have been some truly memorable games vs Manchester City, with some excellent victories for both sides, but also some brilliant games. The upcoming game is the 3rd round of this season’s Capital One Cup. This is City’s first game, due to not being involved in the second round, the round which saw Sunderland defeat Exeter 6-3.
Following Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat by West Ham on Saturday evening, we look at a few things to look out for in Tuesday night’s tie.
Kelechi Iheanacho
The 18-year-old Nigerian was handed his Manchester City debut earlier this season, replacing Raheem Sterling as City defeated Watford. His next appearance was also as a substitute, where he replaced Wilfried Bony again late in the game, and scored his first goal in a sky blue shirt, in their 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. There’s no clear indication that Iheanacho will even start the match on Tuesday, but with the young striker amassing 3 substitute appearances already this season, Pelligrini looks keen to play him. With Sunderland’s defence conceding 16 goals in 7 games in all competitions, Iheanacho’s pace and acceleration will no doubt cause the back four problems.
Patrick Roberts
There haven’t been any sightings of Patrick Roberts in a City shirt since pre-season, but the 18-year-old is well known already. Having played 19 times for Fulham already, Roberts was bought by City in the summer for a fee believed to be in the region of £12-million. Granted, to Sheikh Mansour, £12-million isn’t a lot of money, but to be spent on an 18-year-old is quite a large risk. Roberts did play for City’s U19’s side when they came up against Juventus last week in the UEFA Youth League, in which he scored a stunning goal and assisted 3 all in the same match. Potentially a huge player to look out for in the future of English football, and also the English National Side. It’s thought that with City’s highly thought of youth players, Pellegrini will potentially give Roberts a start.
City’s Solid Defence
Sunderland come up against City following their back-to-back 2-1 defeats, against Juventus and West Ham, both at The Etihad Stadium. However, these 4 goals are the only goals that City have conceded this season, with West Ham scoring the only goals against City in the league this season. Sunderland are coming into the game after back-to-back defeats themselves, and worryingly, have failed to score in either game. Sunderland’s forwards have found themselves with decent chances to score recently, mainly with the ball at Defoe’s feet, but have struggled with scoring lately. Jeremain Lens did, however, have a goal wrongly disallowed against newly promoted side Bournemouth on Saturday, but the goals do still seem to have dried up with the attackers looking relatively low on confidence when through on goal. With Sunderland’s sloppy finishing and City’s strong defence, there will no doubt be a considerable amount of bets placed on a Manchester City clean sheet.
Sunderland’s Weak Defence
City will most likely play a team combined with youth/fringe players and first team regulars. With the way Sunderland’s defence have performed lately, they will either be coming up against world-class players, or players with a point to prove. With Kaboul out through suspension due to the red card he received against Bournemouth, Sunderland’s central defensive partnership will no doubt be the returning John O’Shea partnered up with Sebastian Coates. The O’Shea/Coates pairing is the same central defence partnership that played so excellently together at the business end of last season, ensuring that Sunderland remained a Premier League side. But for some unknown reason, Coates has been way off the money this season, having a poor display in every game he’s played in. In addition, the pair combined have also been extremely poor, with the two gifting Exeter 3 goals in the previous round. The two will no doubt be in for a tough game on Tuesday night, but all Black Cat supporters will be hoping they can get back to the form they found together last season and help Sunderland progress.
