Anthony Gair says…
Eli makes his point!
Mayenda was absolutely phenomenal, playing like a player who wants to prove a point and play more minutes in the best league in the world.
Big, strong, fast, fleet-footed and wonderful. I’ll have his start
every game for the rest of his life.
Dennis Cirkin — take a bow!
He’s gone from “He’s finished, he doesn’t need a contract” to prime Roberto Carlos in a game!
I take back the lack of faith from the Leeds match. I’m sorry.
Tickets being flogged…why?
This is tough, so I’m going to go for people selling their tickets to City fans in the concourse.
Why would you do this? There were so many there. You’re mental!
Ice Station Zebra strikes again
Less of this coldness — I’m already dying of a chest infection.
John Wilson says…
Sunderland come out fighting
I must admit to having a bit of trepidation before the game but the atmosphere at the start and the way we went toe to toe with City was uplifting and very encouraging.
Everyone was up for it — hard work and no little skill. What a battling point. Superb!
Omar Alderete activates “beast mode”
Everyone deserves a mention but my man of the match was Alderete.
He fought for every ball and put his body on the line. Unbelievable!
The dark arts rear their head again
I lost count of the number of times they killed the atmosphere and flow of the game by going down and feigning injury.
I wish referees would see this for what it is: cheating — or bring in the rugby rule where trainers can come on the pitch but allow play to continue.
Not perfect, but it would be a start in tackling this gamesmanship.
A dismal refereeing display
My neutral friend at the match said he was the most inconsistent he’d seen.
My mate is a Bolton fan and despite what we think, he said the standard in League One is better than we saw last night.
Thankfully, it didn’t spoil a great performance.
Lars Knutsen says…
Another determined performance against a top team
Manchester City were on a run of eight victories coming into this fixture — and one of those was against us at the Etihad Stadium, so we know what this opponent is capable of.
None of the home players could be faulted. The defence and midfield were outstanding whilst we restricted City to just four shots on target.
We’ve gone ten Premier League games without defeat at home and this outstanding point was gained with seven players out — six at AFCON and Dan Ballard, who also missed out against Leeds United.
This is a great time to be a Sunderland fan!
Many have remarked on how this team likes to defend, and we’ve earned seven clean sheets so far — including three on our travels.
Erling Haaland was very effectively shackled by Nordi Mukiele but we also chose players with attacking intent, with Eliezer Mayenda, Brian Brobbey and Simon Adingra starting. We also had four shots on target then brought on Wilson Isidor and Romaine Mundle later in the game.
Bearing in mind that just over a year ago, we lost at Stoke City, the plan has been executed to perfection, with great recruitment. We’re now an established Premier League side.
Some key chances missed
As mentioned, it is very hard to fault any of the players but I felt that at crucial moments we lacked coolness and calm in front of goal — especially the chances for Brobbey, Mundle and Adingra.
This argues for some attacking recruitment in the winter transfer window; I still feel we need a wily “fox in the box” who can hit the back of the net but can also pass on his experience to the younger strikers.
Departures in the pipeline?
It would be unconstructive to try to pick any other faults after another outstanding home performance, but there’s been a huge turnover of players in the past year and over the next couple of weeks, we may see some more players who were crucial to our progress in that period departing.
It could be “farewell” to Dan Neil, Aji Alese and others — adding to Patrick Roberts, Jobe and Tommy Watson.
Clearing the decks and balancing the books is very important in business terms.
Malc Dugdale says…
An immense display to a man
That was one of the most gritty points we’ll get this season and from one to eleven (plus our substitutes) the Lads were all massive.
The defence faced up to everything that was thrown at them and got a well-deserved share of the points.
A special mention for Nordi Mukiele, who showed how to outmuscle Erling Haaland. He was my man of the match, but there were a lot of contenders.
Eli the difference maker
I was chuffed for Mayenda as he’s made a great claim for a continued run on the right — during the AFCON period and maybe beyond.
His pace, aggression and ability to run at defenders with the ball gave us extra options and to hear his song chanted time and again was fantastic.
Hopefully he has his confidence back and can really contribute.
We could’ve nicked it!
The chances we created have been converted in other games and to miss the chance to nick a narrow win against City leaves me with a similar feeling to the Liverpool away game.
A point is great though — so we take it and move on.
Another iffy referee
The decisions made by the man in black left a lot to be desired but that’s a common occurrence.
I honestly thought we’d get better officials at this level but it seems they perform poorly at all levels.
It didn’t ruin the game but it didn’t help us. Better luck next time, hopefully!
Mark Wood says…
We’re back to our best
Hands up everyone who thought our unbeaten home record would fall?
I’ll admit I was one, not only because after the Leeds game I thought we were missing Dan Ballard, Reinildo and Noah Sadiki — which isn’t a slight on the players who’ve come in — but also because we were up against the dominant force in the Premier League over the last ten to fifteen years, and a team who after a shaky time last season have looked more like their old selves in the past couple of months.
We’ve seen off Arsenal at home; we’ve seen off “the visitors” and now we’ve seen off the machine that is Manchester City. Who else is out there?
Eliezer Mayenda makes a huge impact
I love Mayenda.
I think he has a lot in his locker for a young striker and last season in the Championship, he worked hard after a bright opening to the campaign, a bit of a indifferent period after injury and then came on strong in the second half of the year to play a significant part in our promotion.
As we went into this season, I felt that if there was one player in our ranks from the Championship squad who could make an impact in the Premier League, it was him.
I think he’s been a bit unlucky not to get more chances so far with the form of Wilson Isidor and Brian Brobbey, but we looked more balanced and carried more of an attacking threat with him in our ranks.
I hope he keeps his place and gets a run in the side, as he has more to offer.
Sunderland’s progress continues
This match summed up why we are were we are and not fighting a relegation battle.
Unlimited commitment from everyone in a red and white shirt and in the last half hour with City piling forward, we were throwing bodies from all angles in front of the ball.But it wasn’t all about the Blues and we opened up enough chances to have got a goal ourselves.
City know they got a game from us — and there’ll be top teams in the Premier League who won’t give City as much as a test as we did.
2026 starts with a great point!
I have no real downs to report and considering how I dreaded it might have turned out you have to be happy with the point, and it wasn’t a lucky point at that.
It was fully deserved from our view, we are still unbeaten at home going into the New Year and we now have twenty nine points from nineteen games and sit in seventh place halfway through the season.
