Sunderland v Manchester City: Premier League – live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

The teams

Sunderland: Roefs, Hume, Mukiele, Alderete, Cirkin, Xhaka, Geertruida, Mayenda, Le Fee, Adingra, Brobbey. Subs: Patterson, Neil, Rigg, O’Nien, Mundle, Isidor, Hjelde, Harrison Jones, Tutierov.

Man City: Donnarumma, Matheus Luiz, Dias, Ake, O’Reilly, Silva, Gonzalez, Foden, Savio, Cherki, Haaland. Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Doku, Rodri, Gvardiol, Khusanov, Mukasa, Lewis, Reigan Heskey.

Referee: Jarred Gillett (Australia)

The glitch in the space-time continuum that is this season’s fixture list means they met just weeks ago. That was the day of the rabona.

Here’s the table, as it stands. Sunderland have had such a good season. City are in the hunt but their points total is significantly lower than in their imperial periods.

Preamble

Happy new year to the readers. Can Manchester City’s inexorable run continue? Since 29 November, they have won every single match. Arsenal may hope for Pep Guardiola’s team to have a drier January, and for them to slip up at Sunderland. Though perhaps it’s a timely trip with Sunderland shorn of players at AfCon, and with other injuries. It was a brilliant year for the Black Cats, and in Regis Le Bris they have an excellent coach. Taking on Pep is the ultimate test.

Kick-off is 8pm. Join me.