Man City 0-0 Sunderland: The steel wall

Man City pressed the field for the first 25 minutes but could not penetrate Sunderland's well-organized defense.

Premier League 2025/26 race situation: In the early match, "The Gunners" unexpectedly lost 1-2 to Aston Villa. With this result, Aston Villa pushed Man City down to 3rd place. Currently, "The Citizens" are 5 points behind Arsenal with 1 match less. Coach Pep Guardiola and his team must beat Sunderland to narrow the gap to 2 points.

Force information:

• Man City: Pep Guardiola continues to be without both of his key players in midfield, Rodri (hamstring injury) and Mateo Kovacic (heel problem). This shortage significantly reduces the defending champions' ability to coordinate from a distance, which is a strong point. In that context, Nico Gonzalez is almost certain to start in the anchor role.
• Sunderland: The visitors have a long list of injured players including Habib Diarra, Dennis Cirkin, Leo Hjelde and Aji Alese. However, they received good news with Trai Hume returning to form, along with the experienced presence of new signing Granit Xhaka in the midfield area, giving fans more peace of mind.

Notable statistics:

• History is completely on the home team's side when Man City won all 7 of their most recent encounters with Sunderland, scoring a total of 20 goals and conceding only 6.
• Sunderland's last win over Man City came in November 2013.
• At Etihad, Man City are also on a 7-match winning streak in the Premier League this season.
• However, Sunderland is the dark horse of the tournament, having drawn with Liverpool and Arsenal and beaten Chelsea this season. Therefore, "The Citizens" must be careful.

Starting lineup:

Source: https://znews.vn/man-city-0-0-sunderland-buc-tuong-thep-post1609005.html