Sunderland have never won a league game at Manchester City, and they arrive with a European night in their legs
Enzo Maresca’s City have won six in a row and kept four clean sheets, while Sunderland landed their first European win in 53 years on Wednesday.
Sep 19, 2026
Manchester City host Sunderland at the Etihad on Sunday at 6:30pm IST, with both sides arriving off a midweek win and almost nothing else in common.
City have won all four of their league games and sit level on 12 points with Arsenal, behind only on goal difference. Sunderland have four points from four and have not won on the road this season.
Maresca’s start has been close to flawless
Enzo Maresca replaced Pep Guardiola in June, which is the sort of job nobody envies, and he has won his last six matches across three competitions. The last four have been clean sheets.
Thursday’s 5-0 in the EFL Cup against Norwich said as much about the squad as the result did. Maresca made ten changes from the side that won at Old Trafford, left Erling Haaland out of the squad entirely, and still won by five. Floyd Samba scored twice on debut. Allan Elias, the £34 million signing from Palmeiras, scored on his first appearance.
Foden is still serving his ban
The Manchester derby on 13 September was not the performance, but it was the result. Phil Foden was sent off in the 23rd minute for kicking out at Bruno Fernandes, and City played three quarters of the match with ten men before Haaland scored on the hour to win it 1-0 at Old Trafford.
Foden misses this one as the second game of a three-match ban. Jeremy Doku is close to fit again after injury, though a place on the bench looks more likely than a start.
Sunderland have had a week worth remembering
Régis Le Bris took his team into Europe for the first time in 53 years on Wednesday and got a 1-0 win out of it. Enzo Le Fée won a penalty off Weslley Patati and put it away in the 66th minute, and AZ Alkmaar, unbeaten going into the night, left the Stadium of Light with nothing.
Four days earlier the same ground had been a good deal quieter. Arsenal won 2-0 there, David Raya saved a Le Fée penalty just after the hour, and Bruno Guimarães scored his first Arsenal goal two minutes later in front of a home crowd that had booed his every touch because he used to play for Newcastle. Reinildo Mandava was sent off in stoppage time and Bukayo Saka scored the penalty that followed.
Reinildo is suspended for this trip. Habib Diarra and Romaine Mundle are still injured, and Omar Alderete came out of the AZ game with a muscle problem.
The record is not encouraging
Sunderland have never won a Premier League game at Manchester City. Not one, across the whole of the competition’s history, and only a couple of draws to show for the trips.
Beating a team on this run, at this ground, with a European tie in the legs, would be the biggest result of Le Bris’s time at the club. The more realistic hope is the one Sunderland have relied on all season: keep it tight, stay in it, and see what the last twenty minutes offer.