mcfc.co.uk
Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City dominated fellow Premier League side Sunderland in a one sided fixture on Sunday, winning 5-0. Goals from Adam Johnson, Carlos Tevez, David Silva, Patrick Vieria and Yaya Toure gave City a comfortable win, helping them in the race for fourth place whilst lfting pressure on Mancini.
Fit again Tevez started upfront with Mario Baloteli, with Edin Dzeko dropping to the bench, whilst Adam Johnson was back to his best after an ankle injury layoff. It was the England winger Johnson who opened the scoring after nine minutes, powering the ball past Black Cats keeper Simon Mignolet after playing a one-two with Toure.
City’s lead was doubled six minutes later when Tevez was brought down in the box by a clumsy tackle by Phil Bardsley after the Argentine had been played through by David Silva. Carlitos took the kick himself, and the ball went in off the post despite a good attempt at a save by Mignolet.
The remainder of the first half was all one way traffic, with attempts at goal by Aleksandar Kolarov and Balotelli failing to increase the home side’s lead. Sunderland had a rare chance on 37 minutes, when an Asamoah Gyan strike from distance flew wide, and the game went into the break 2-0 to City.
City started the second half brightly and efforts from Johnson and Balotelli were thwarted before the third goal from Silva came on 63 minutes. Good work from Nigel de Jong and Tevez resulted in a chance for Balotelli, who’s shot was blocked by Michael Turner, but the ball fell to Silva who made no mistake in making it 3-0. Vieria came on to replace Johnson and scored within a minute of being on the pitch, converting a defelcted Kolarov cross to make it 4-0. Mignolet half saved the effort but the ball was correctly adjudged to go over the line.
Sunderland were counting the minutes down until the game was over, and a mistake from Lee Cattermole allowed Yaya Toure to put the icing on the cake, lofting the ball over Mignolet to make it a 5-0 rout. City are now six points ahead of Spurs in fourth but have played a game more, whilst Steve Bruce’s men will be disappointed with their efforts and their poor run in form sees them slip to 12th place.
Tags: Adam Johnson, Carlos Tevez, David Silva, Man City, Patrick Vieria, Roberto Mancini, Sunderland, Yaya Toure
