Manchester City led three times in the first half, conceded three times to the same striker, and still went into the international break three points clear at the top of the Premier League. Their 5-3 win over Sunderland at the Etihad on Sunday was both an advertisement for Enzo Maresca’s attack and a warning about everything behind it.
Enzo Fernandez curled in a ninth-minute free-kick for his first goal since arriving from Chelsea. Brian Brobbey equalised three minutes later. Rayan Cherki restored the lead on 29 minutes; Brobbey levelled again on 33. Antoine Semenyo put City 3-2 up two minutes before the interval, added his second on 57, and when Brobbey bundled in his hat-trick goal on 59 the game was level again in everything but the scoreline. Erling Haaland settled it late, turning in a Josko Gvardiol cross after a VAR check confirmed the goal.
It was only the seventh Premier League match in which a side has held three separate leads in a single first half. It was also the first time since Roque Santa Cruz for Blackburn in 2007 that a player has scored a hat-trick and lost, with Brobbey becoming just the sixth to do so in the competition’s history.
Brobbey punishes a defence that keeps giving
Sunderland did not park in and hope. Regis Le Bris sent his side out to press City’s build-up and attack the space behind Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias, and they generated nine shots on target — a return few visiting teams manage at the Etihad in a full season of trying, let alone an afternoon.
Brobbey was the beneficiary of all three lapses. The first came from a loose second ball on the edge of the box, the second from a Sunderland transition that cut through City’s rest defence, the third from a scramble after Gianluigi Donnarumma could only parry. None of the goals were flukes, and that is what should trouble Maresca. City have now conceded in every league game of his tenure.
“To be honest, I prefer to win 1-0 than 5-3, but I expected a very difficult game,” Maresca said. “We started eight weeks ago and each of our seven official games has been different. They teach us lessons.”
Le Bris, whose side have been the division’s most watchable newcomers, refused to treat it as a chastening afternoon. “We didn’t compromise our identity and we went toe-to-toe with a European elite side,” he said. “Every small mistake gets punished at this level. That’s the Premier League reality.” On Brobbey, he added: “His mentality is superb and he improves with each match.”
Five from five, and a gap that grew elsewhere
The significance of the result was sharpened 200 miles away. Arsenal, unbeaten going into the weekend, were beaten 3-0 at Brighton, meaning City’s five wins from five now stand three points clear of the reigning champions rather than level with them.
That matters more than a single matchday usually would, because the league now pauses. City banked the lead at exactly the point they can sit on it, and Maresca — appointed this summer, with a perfect record to defend — takes his first extended break with no points dropped and a squad that has scored freely in every fixture so far.
Haaland’s contribution was modest by his standards but historically neat: the Norwegian has now scored against all 25 Premier League opponents he has faced. Semenyo’s double was the more telling individual performance, his movement off the left repeatedly isolating Timothee Matusinski before he finished twice from inside the box.
What the break does and does not fix
City’s problem is not one that a fortnight without matches obviously solves. The structural issue is the distance between their midfield and their back three when possession turns over — a by-product of the attacking shape that produced five goals, not a separate flaw to be drilled away.
The fixtures after the break are unforgiving. A trip to Liverpool and a Champions League meeting with Paris Saint-Germain follow in quick succession, two opponents who will punish exactly the transitions Sunderland exploited. Score five against those sides and the arithmetic still works; concede three and it may not.
For Sunderland, the ledger reads better than the result. They arrived at the Etihad without their best defensive midfielder available for long stretches, scored three, and left with a striker in the form of his career. Their season will be defined by whether Brobbey keeps converting chances of that quality against sides in the bottom half — where the points they actually need are found.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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