Manchester City welcome the visit of Sunderland on Wednesday at The Blues look to get their title challenge back on track after a disappointing defeat to Liverpool on Sunday afternoon. Despite being 7 points behind Liverpool now, City have two games in hand in which to catch up, with Wednesday’s visit of Sunderland being the first of them. This game has had to be rearranged, being abandoned almost 2 months ago thanks to weather in Manchester which was deemed unsafe.
This is the fourth time the pair of sides have come together this season. They met last summer in Hong Kong in the Barclays Premier League Asia Trophy, with The Citizens emerging the victors thanks to a 9th minute Edin Džeko goal giving his team the win. Next, the two teams met at The Stadium of Light in November. Prior to Sunday’s loss in Liverpool, the Sunderland away game (five months before) was the last time City lost away in the league, when Phil Bardsley scored for The Black Cats.
The pair’s third meeting was last month, at Wembley in the Capital One Cup Final. Both sets of fans travelled down to London after successful semi-finals (with Sunderland impressively beating Manchester United), and eventually Manuel Pellegrini emerged from the tie the eventual 3-1 victor. However, it wasn’t easy after Fabio Borini scored early. Yaya Touré, Samir Nasri and Jesús Navas completed the turnaround in the second half.
This is a game Manuel Pellegrini needs to win if he retains any hope of winning the Premier League title this season. Sunday’s loss left him seven points behind the leaders despite his two games in hand on The Reds, which still requires them to drop points at home to Chelsea in the coming weeks. As unlikely as it is to happen, Manchester City need to have some belief that they can do it from here – they came back from worse positions than this in the season they won the league.
The Blues have very few injury worries to contend themselves with for Wednesday’s game. Sunday saw the return of Sergio Agüero to the side who looked like he’d never been absent, but unfortunately it also saw Yaya Touré (groin) pick up a knock which could keep him out for the remainder of the season; a massive blow for the club in their challenge. Matija Nastasić, who has been out for almost three months with a knee problem remains absent from the side, and could remain so until the summer.
Sunderland also only have minor injury woes to think about. Steven Fletcher (ankle) remains out for The Black Cats, as does Kieran Westwood (shoulder). Jozy Altidore (knock) could find himself back in the squad but that will provide little solace to Sunderland supporters, with the summer signing having scored just once in 25 league games since his move from AZ Alkmaar last summer, leaving him as arguably one of the biggest flops of the season.
On paper, Wednesday night looks like an open-and-shut league victory for Manuel Pellegrini for his team. However, on more than a few occasions this season we’ve seen weaker teams come to the Etihad and be underestimated by The Blues, which is what happened when Wigan Athletic came to City in the FA Cup last month. Whether they will do that whilst a win remains an absolute necessity for both sides remains to be seen. One thing is for sure – if City don’t win the game tomorrow, they have no hope of regaining the title in May.