Man City 5-3 Sunderland: a hat-trick on the losing side

Manchester City 5-3 Sunderland produced eight goals, a hat-trick for the losing side and the first afternoon of the season in which City looked like they could be got at. Brian Brobbey scored on twelve, thirty-three and fifty-nine minutes. Sunderland were level three times and lost by two.

The shot counts say something stranger still. Sunderland had seventeen attempts to City’s sixteen and nine on target to City’s six. They went home with nothing, and with a striker who had scored three goals in a match his team lost.

Level after nine minutes, and after thirty-three

Enzo Fernandez opened it on nine minutes, right-footed from a free kick, three minutes after Dayann Methalie had been booked for a bad foul. Brobbey levelled on twelve, right-footed from the centre of the box, set up by Enzo Le Fee.

Rayan Cherki put City back in front on twenty-nine, right-footed from the centre of the box, assisted by Antoine Semenyo. Brobbey levelled again on thirty-three, right-footed from the centre of the box, this time set up by Thomas Meunier. Two goals each inside thirty-three minutes, and three different Sunderland players had already had a hand in them.

Semenyo twice, and a third for Brobbey

Semenyo, who had made the second, scored the third himself on forty-three, right-footed from the centre of the box and assisted by Marc Guehi. Twelve minutes into the second half he scored again, left-footed from the left side of the box, and City led by two for the first time.

It lasted two minutes. Nilson Angulo set up Brobbey on fifty-nine, right-footed from very close range, and it was 4-3 with half an hour to go. The match stayed there until the eighty-first minute, when Josko Gvardiol found Erling Haaland, who finished right-footed from very close range.

• Enzo Fernandez (Manchester City), 9 minutes: free kick, right-footed
• Brian Brobbey (Sunderland), 12 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Enzo Le Fee
• Rayan Cherki (Manchester City), 29 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Antoine Semenyo
• Brian Brobbey (Sunderland), 33 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Thomas Meunier
• Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City), 43 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Marc Guehi
• Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City), 57 minutes: left-footed, from the left side of the box
• Brian Brobbey (Sunderland), 59 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Nilson Angulo
• Erling Haaland (Manchester City), 81 minutes: right-footed, assisted by Josko Gvardiol
• Shots: Manchester City 16 (6 on target), Sunderland 17 (9 on target)
• Possession: Manchester City 55%, Sunderland 45%

Five wins, and the first three goals conceded

City are the only side in the division with a perfect record: five matches, five wins, fifteen points. What changed on Sunday is at the other end. They had beaten Bournemouth 2-1, won 4-1 at Crystal Palace, beaten Coventry City 1-0 and won 1-0 at Old Trafford, conceding two goals in the whole of that run. Sunderland scored three in an hour.

Thirteen scored and five conceded is still the second-best goal difference in the league behind Brighton, and the win extends their lead at the top to three points over Arsenal. But six shots on target from 55% of the ball, against a side sitting fourteenth, is not the profile of the four matches that came before it.

Sunderland scored more on Sunday than in their first four combined

Sunderland had three goals in four matches going into this: they lost 2-1 at Ipswich Town, beat Fulham 1-0, drew 1-1 at Brentford and lost 2-0 at home to Arsenal. They scored three at the Etihad and lost, which is the kind of afternoon that reads differently depending on which column you look at.

They stay fourteenth on four points, with six scored and ten conceded, and Robert Jones booked one of their players and none of City’s. Brobbey has four league goals now, three of them in this match, and he is the reason a 5-3 at the Etihad will be remembered as something other than a routine home win.

Two forwards, five goals between them

Semenyo and Brobbey scored five of the eight goals and neither of them is the most famous forward on the pitch. Semenyo made one and scored two; Brobbey scored three and was set up by three different players, Le Fee, Meunier and Angulo, which says something about how often Sunderland arrived in the box.

Haaland scored the fifth and it was his only meaningful contribution to the scoreline. City needed a free kick, a break, two finishes from Semenyo and a late goal from their centre forward to beat a side that had taken four points from its first four matches.

Simulate the rest of the Premier League season

City have won all five and just conceded three at home. Sunderland have a striker who scored a hat-trick and took nothing from it. On the Premier League simulator you can take the real table forward from here and see whether either of those holds.

• Play the remaining 33 rounds from the real table and the real fixture list
• Run any fixture through the AI match simulator, in tactical view or in the physics arena
• Open the line-up builder for both clubs before you kick off a simulation
• Turn an arena simulation into a vertical video ready to share

"Sunderland had nine shots on target to City’s six, scored three times and lost by two."