Manchester City Vs Sunderland Official Sunderland Not606 Match Thread please log in to view this image After slipping up against top-of-the-table Liverpool on Sunday, Manchester City will be expecting to get back to winning ways against bottom side Sunderland. The last time these two teams met was in the Capital One Cup final when City won their first trophy under Manuel Pellegrini. Anything other than a victory on Wednesday evening could well mean that it will be his only silverware this season. Pellegrini remains upbeat about his side's title chances: "We win our two postponed games and we're a point back. If you don't believe we can do it, you can't believe in anything." City went 2-0 down in the opening quarter against Liverpool, and Pellegrini has pinpointed a good start against Sunderland. "It's important we start with the same high performance we showed in the second half of the Liverpool game," he said. Sunderland have picked up just one point from a possible 18 since losing to City at Wembley in March. The Black Cats are seven points adrift of safety - they do have two games in hand over their relegation rivals but with trips to Chelsea and Manchester United to follow the visit to the Etihad, things are pretty bleak for the Wearside club. Even manager Gus Poyet appears resigned to relegation and believes the club's problems might have deep roots that are hard to fix. "I said too many times I cannot promise I will get this club safe because it would be silly," he said. "There's something wrong in the football club and it's not an excuse. I need to find what it is. If I don't, we've got a problem. I'd like to think I know what it is, but I don't." Match Appointments REFEREE: Martin Atkinson ASST. REF. 1: S Child ASST. REF. 2: P Kirkup 4TH OFFICIAL: M Jones Manchester City Team News Manchester City's Yaya Toure will be out for about two weeks after suffering a groin injury at Liverpool on Sunday. Sergio Aguero, who returned from injury off the bench last time out, is fit. Sunderland Team News Sunderland defender Phil Bardsley begins a two-match ban after picking up his 10th yellow card of the season in Saturday's defeat by Everton. Midfielder Liam Bridcutt will also be absent for personal reasons while long-term absentees Steven Fletcher and Keiren Westwood remain sidelined. Head to Head please log in to view this image EPL Form please log in to view this image This Seasons Reverse Fixture please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Last Corresponding Fixture please log in to view this image What the 'Experts' Say please log in to view this image Lawrenson He can't be arsed, gone to smoke some crack instead. Merson It's important that Man City play this game now - and win it - because they need to get the gap between themselves and Liverpool down quickly. If they do win then the difference comes down from seven to four and they'll still have a game in hand. I know the title is out of their hands but the table will look a whole lot better for them and the battle for this league title is nowhere near finished yet, nowhere near it. You don't want your games in hand piled up at the end of the season; you want to get the points on the board and put pressure on the other teams. Fair play to City for coming back into it against Liverpool because they were blown away in the first half. They were terrible. But they had Liverpool on the rack in the second half and if you'd have asked me at 2-2 who was going to win the match I would have had to go for City. Vincent Kompany has got a lot of stick for Liverpool's winner but it's unusual for him to make mistakes. There would have been mayhem if Martin Demichelis had done what he did! Mayhem. Demichelis would have got slaughtered from pillar to post. I thought Demichelis played well on Sunday; he had Luis Suarez in his pocket in the second half. But for me the manager got it all wrong from the start. James Milner came on and completely changed the game in the second half. I don't know why he doesn't play a bigger part in more of these games because he knows what it's all about and he gives you energy. The loss of Yaya Toure was massive and I would have brought on Milner rather than Javi Garcia. Before he moved to City he wasn't playing for Aston Villa on the wing - he was in the centre. I think he can still do a real good job there, a real good job. Sunderland have to go and try to win this game - a draw is no good to them. They are behind the eight-ball and have to win one of their next two games against Man City and Chelsea or they are relegated. That's a big ask when you consider how many teams have gone to City and done that. They can't afford to do what I expect Palace to do at Everton - sit there and frustrate them. Sunderland have to open the game and try to win it. A draw isn't enough. But playing open, attacking football just plays into City's hands. I don't see Man City not winning this game and it could be by plenty. I don't want to be disrespectful to Sunderland, who were unlucky and shouldn't have lost against Everton, but they haven't got enough to hurt teams. That's the problem. They aren't going to score three or four goals in a football match. The pressure is off City to some extent now that the title is out of their hands. They can go out and play and that could be bad news for Sunderland. PAUL PREDICTS: 4-0 Stats n Facts Man City have won just two of the last eight Barclays Premier League meetings with Sunderland (W2 D2 L4), with all four of Sunderland’s victories being 1-0 wins. Sunderland have lost four successive Barclays Premier League away games, conceding 13 goals in total during this run. James Milner has scored five goals against Sunderland in the Premier League; more than against any other Premier League opponent. This includes his first ever goal in the competition. The Citizens have won 14 of their last 15 Premier League home matches, with the only blip on their record being a 0-1 home defeat to Chelsea in February. City have already scored 52 goals at home in the Premier League this season – just six sides have scored more at home in a single PL campaign (the record being 68 by Chelsea in 2009-10) Man City last suffered back to back Premier League defeats in October 2010. Sunderland have collected just one point from their last eight Premier League games. Since playing City in the Capital One Cup final, Sunderland have scored just three goals in six Premier League games. Sergio Aguero has scored 13 goals in his last 12 Premier League starts. Sunderland (15) have scored more away goals than they have at home this season (14). Betting please log in to view this image Links http://www.mcfc.co.uk/~/media/Files/Tickets/1314 Visiting Supporter Information_v9.ashx Streaming http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=253542&part=sports
If we roll over then I'll be mightily pissed off I expect to see a concentrated defensive effort, knowing our defenders though someone will **** it up within 5 mins.
City looked better without Yaya Toure against Liverpool, then when Aguero came on they lost an attacking threat he looks lazy and overweight. Is this game on TV tonight? Going to watch the Copa Del Rey final but Barcelona's ref will have probably spoilt that before half time.
I am quite tempted to stick £5k on Man city to win the game, it will be like free money. Can anyone seriously see us even getting a point? its going to be a case of keeping the goal difference down.
Is anyone going? Tickets available at the ground apparently. I do fancy it. Sometimes wish I had no responsibilities and could just do what I like
We are only their bogey team at the stadium of light. We are going to get the backlash from their defeat to Liverpool. Hate saying it but I think that record Man utd - Ipswich score might be get tested.
If you're going to sit in the house watching football, at least watch our game! We're not down yet and Merson is wrong that we need to win here or Saturday. Our final 4 games give us a chance so tonight and Sat are both a shot to nothing. Remember winning 3-0 at Chelsea recently?! Imagine if we pulled off a shock like that and you missed it watching 22 men cheating their way to a totally insignificant Spanish trophy.
I'll still have us on the lappy mate. Wouldn't say it was insignificant, teams in Spain have a lot of respect for the del Rey, it's still held as a prestigious trophy.
I'm going to the pub to watch the Sunderland match like. would never watch foreign footy over Sunderland sorry. when people say we need something tonight or on saturday they are talking ****. Sunderland will lose to Man city & Chelsea. Fulham will lose at Spurs. Norwich will lose against Liverpool. Hopefully Cardiff gets beat of Stoke.
