…still, “…a pleasure to watch”.
That was a comment from the lead commentator on the radio as I listened to their 1-1 home draw against Leeds United.
They may have lost more players than any other Premier League club to AFCON but they still pose a very difficult challenge tonight.
There’s a blog announcement reminder at the end of this piece.
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| Stadium of Light |
Predicted line-up, subs and outcome:
(Number correct from the starting line-up in the last game: 11/11.
A very fluid 4-1-4-1 / 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 (occasional 3-6-1):
____________________Haaland____________________
__Foden________________________________Cherki__
_________Silva(C)_________________Reijnders_______
____________________Gonzalez___________________
O’Reilly___________________________________Nunes
__________Gvardiol______________Dias(VC)__________
__________________Donnarumma_________________
Subs: Trafford, Lewis, Ake, Khusanov, Rodri, Mukasa, Doku, Savinho and Heskey.
Gigi continues in goal.
A back-4, occasional 3, of Nico-O-, Josko, Ruben and Matheus.
Nico-G- is the ‘holder’ in midfield, while Phil, Bernardo, Tijjani and Rayan-C- provide the creativity and attacking threat from the middle and wide areas.
Erling up front.
James is reserve stopper while Rico, Nathan and Abdukodir make up three defenders on the side. Two reserve midfielders come in the shape of Rodders and Divine, while wide / forward options are provided by Jeremy, Savinho and Reigan.
Notable absences:
- Marcus Bettinelli – Not selected.
- Stefan Ortega – Not selected.
- Rayan Ait-Nouri – Away on international duty.
- Kalvin Phillips – Not selected.
- John Stones – Out with a thigh injury but it was said on 12th December that the England defender isn’t expected to be missing for long. With no pre-match press conference for this one as far as I am aware, I am not sure if John will have recovered enough in time to be part of the matchday squad this afternoon (12:30pm KO GMT). It has been 3 weeks now after we were given the impression that it wasn’t a major issue. ❓
- Mateo Kovacic – Recovering from secondary surgery to clean up some calcification in his ankle. Expected return is around February 2026.
- Oscar Bobb – Out with a muscular / hamstring issue. Unknown return date.
- Omar Marmoush – Away on international duty.
Do I agree with Pep’s (predicted) line-up?
Yes.
Result?
“Scrappy”. “A gritty win”. “An awful game”. “It’s 3 points, init?”. Those were just some of the comments from a few City fans following our 1-2 win away at Nottingham Forest last Saturday.
“A draw would have been a fair result”. “City should have been playing the second half with 10 men; possibly 9”, were the words of just two Forest fans after the match.
Waiting to leave the house to attend a family Christmas party, I had no opportunity to watch the game and, instead, listened to the first half live on the trusty ol’ radio. That 45 minutes didn’t sound too pretty, which backs up the words from those City fans. Perhaps a draw would have been fair and bearing in mind our track record at the City Ground, which is mixed to say the very least; a point could have been viewed as, ‘…better than none’.
Opinions aside, the facts are these:
- 66% possession to their 34%
- 16 shots to their 7; 5 on target to their 2
- Almost 3 times as many touches in their box than they had in ours.
Maybe it wasn’t pretty – perhaps an early kick-off away from home and being the first game after the Christmas holiday was always going to be a bit iffy. But iffy or not, we won and it was our 8th-straight win in all competitions. 👏👏👏👍
That should breath extra confidence into our lads and if Pep saw some things he didn’t quite like during our 3-0 home win against West Ham recently, then you can be sure he will have already combed through and then gone over with the lads areas for improvement following our trip to Forest.
We’ll need that confidence and fine tuning and perhaps an bit more because I don’t think any side has had an easy time of it away against the season’s surprise package that is The Black Cats. What a team their manager has assembled – hard working, organised and they score just enough goals to either secure win or earn a share of the points. And, as that commentator said last Sunday, are apparently a pleasure to watch too.
Sitting 7th, they’ve lost the same number of games in the league as we have and have conceded just one more than us in the Prem; giving them the 3rd-best defensive record in the division. It’s only the number of draws (7) instead of a few more wins which has prevented them from joining us in the top-4. Just like us, only one side has lost fewer games than tonight’s hosts.
Before I discovered the fact that Sunderland had lost seven players to AFCON, I had this firmly down as a draw and I would have taken that considering what a tough place it has been for other sides to go to. I’m still umming and erring over that possible outcome now.
However, I know there’s no logic to football and I understand that Leeds United have had an upturn in form in recent games but I’m now thinking…if Leeds can go there and get a draw then surely we can come home with all-3 points. I know…football doesn’t work like that.
But I’m sticking with those good vibes whether that’s based on illogic or not, I’m going for us to make it 9 wins from 9. It’s 3-points to The Blues.
Last season’s, corresponding pre-match prediction and result:
Prediction: N/A
Result: N/A
Expected weather conditions during the game: Flippin’ cold! Well it is winter. At least it remains dry but 3C, as the ref blows his whistle to signal the start of the game, comes with a stiff north-westerly breeze that makes the “feels like” temperature -2 / -3C. A midweek away fixture at Sunderland? Been there, done that…and so I applaud every travelling City fan. 👏👏👏 Wrap up people. 🥶🧣🧥🧤🍵🥧 but still…🍺⚽ I wonder which City player(s), aside from the keeper of course, will be wearing gloves…
Blog announcement:
As I mentioned I would a few weeks ago, I have looked at both the forthcoming 2026 fixtures list and my current work schedule and I am going to put a freeze on producing midweek blog postings prior to games.
This definitely applies to January and February where the fixture list is brutal in terms of frequency but until further notice beyond that, I’ll just be concentrating on weekend fixtures.
I hope, in some ways, that normal service will resume at some point; where I start to cover more midweek fixtures once again in due course.
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| Solidarity |
