{"id":32726,"date":"2011-12-29T19:35:05","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T19:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/sunderland-looking-to-continue-citys-stutter\/"},"modified":"2011-12-29T19:35:05","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T19:35:05","slug":"sunderland-looking-to-continue-citys-stutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/sunderland-looking-to-continue-citys-stutter\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunderland looking to continue City\u2019s stutter"},"content":{"rendered":"

With their lead over Manchester United evaporated, Manchester City travel to the Stadium of Light on New Year\u2019s Day to face a Sunderland side hell-bent on grabbing maximum points, kick-off at 17h00.<\/p>\n

The Citizens, since demolishing Manchester United 6-1 in October, have slowly seen their lead at the top reduced and all of a sudden they are sitting level on points with their cross-town rivals.<\/p>\n

Roberto Mancini’s side found it extremely difficult to break down a stubborn West Brom side on Boxing Day, dropping two points as a result of a goalless draw, and it could well be more of the same against the Black Cats.<\/p>\n

Mancini, though, will be pushing his strikers at shooting practice after Mario Balotelli hit the bar from long range and had a goal disallowed for offside.\u00a0 The burly Italian has been stuck on eight league goals since scoring in City’s 2-1 loss against Chelsea – their only defeat in their past five games.<\/p>\n

City demolished Norwich City 5-1 and scored wins over Arsenal 1-0 and Stoke City 3-0 before choking at the Hawthorns.<\/p>\n

Still, while City swept all before them in the opening weeks of the season, the light Blues have taken just seven points from their previous four matches and the mini wobble began with defeat at Chelsea.<\/p>\n

Right-back Micah Richards sat out against West Brom with a calf injury and is likely to do the same against Sunderland with Pablo Zabaleta continuing to provide cover in defence.<\/p>\n

David Silva has been phenomenal for City this season, racking up five goals and eight assists so far and Mancini will need his guile and speed to keep the Citizens in the title hunt and he will also be expecting Sergio Aguero to add to his 13 league goals so far.<\/p>\n

In the Sunderland camp, since Martin O’Neill’s appointment as manager a new wave of optimism has swept the Stadium of Light and the home fans will relish taking on one of the big boys.<\/p>\n

Sunderland were unfortunate not to make it three wins in four top flight matches when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Everton on Boxing Day and they should be aiming to pull away from the drop zone in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

A rejuvenated Sunderland could well cause the City problems on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With their lead over Manchester United evaporated, Manchester City travel to the Stadium of Light on New Year\u2019s Day to face a Sunderland side hell-bent on grabbing maximum points, kick-off at 17h00. The Citizens, since demolishing Manchester United 6-1 in October, have slowly seen their lead at the top reduced and all of a sudden they are sitting level on points with their cross-town rivals. Roberto Mancini’s side found it extremely difficult to break down a stubborn West Brom side on Boxing Day, dropping two points as a result of a goalless draw, and it could well be more of the same against the Black Cats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nSunderland looking to continue City\u2019s stutter - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/29\/sunderland-looking-to-continue-citys-stutter\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Sunderland looking to continue City\u2019s stutter - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"With their lead over Manchester United evaporated, Manchester City travel to the Stadium of Light on New Year\u2019s Day to face a Sunderland side hell-bent on grabbing maximum points, kick-off at 17h00. 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