Manchester City edged an extraordinary eight-goal contest against Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, coming through 5-3 in a game that swung one way and then the other before Erling Haaland settled it late on. It extended Enzo Maresca’s winning start as City manager to five league games out of five and moved his side three points clear at the top of the Premier League, with Arsenal having been beaten 3-0 at Brighton the day before.
For long spells, though, this was Brian Brobbey’s afternoon. The Sunderland striker, signed from Ajax on transfer deadline day for around €20 million, scored all three of his side’s goals in a display that will live long in the memory of the travelling support, even in defeat. He became the first player to score a hat-trick against Manchester City since Jamie Vardy managed it for Leicester City back in September 2020, a run of more than six years without a side finding a way past City’s defence three times in one afternoon.
Brobbey Announces Himself in Spectacular Fashion
Brobbey’s introduction to English football could hardly have been more dramatic. Barely a fortnight into his Sunderland career, he cancelled out Enzo Fernández’s early opener for City with a composed finish, then levelled again midway through the first half after Rayan Cherki had restored City’s lead. Two goals down twice in the space of half an hour and still finding a way back level both times said everything about the confidence Régis Le Bris has instilled in his squad since promotion.
The Dutchman completed his hat-trick in the second half to make it 4-3 after Antoine Semenyo had briefly put City two goals clear, and for a few minutes Sunderland genuinely looked capable of leaving Manchester with something from the game. It was only Haaland’s intervention, his first goal in three meetings with Sunderland, that finally settled the contest in City’s favour.
Brobbey’s move to Wearside was one of the more eye-catching pieces of business on deadline day, and Sunderland fans have not had to wait long to see why Régis Le Bris pushed to bring him in. A hat-trick against the Premier League’s form side, on the road, in only his fifth appearance for the club, is about as emphatic an introduction as any new signing could hope to make. It will not show up as a positive result on Sunderland’s season, but it will do plenty for Brobbey’s standing with a support that has taken quickly to their side’s attacking approach this season.
City’s Summer Rebuild Shows Its Value
If Brobbey stole the personal headlines, the result belonged to Manchester City’s own recruitment. Enzo Fernández, signed from Chelsea in a British record-equalling £125 million deal, opened the scoring with an early free kick, his first goal for the club since his big money move. Rayan Cherki, a £34 million arrival from Lyon in the summer, restored City’s lead in the first half with a composed finish of his own. Antoine Semenyo, who joined from Bournemouth for £64 million after helping fire the Cherries to a strong season, scored twice to become City’s most involved attacker on the day before Haaland eventually settled matters.
It amounted to four different scorers for City inside 90 minutes, a reminder of the strength in depth Maresca now has available to him after a summer of spending that has taken City’s outlay beyond £425 million in twelve months. Not every name on that scoresheet was a guaranteed starter under the previous regime at the Etihad, and the willingness of City’s new signings to contribute so quickly will be exactly what Maresca wanted to see as he continues to shape the squad in his own image.
Maresca’s Perfect Start Continues
Five wins from five league games is a rare feat for any manager walking into a new job, let alone one succeeding as decorated a predecessor as City have had in recent seasons. Only a handful of managers in Premier League history have won their opening five matches in charge of a club, and Maresca has done it while absorbing a huge volume of new faces into his starting eleven. It has not always been comfortable, as Sunderland’s three goals on Sunday demonstrated, but the results have kept coming regardless.
With Arsenal having slipped up at Brighton the previous afternoon, City’s win puts real daylight between themselves and last season’s closest challengers at this early stage. Three points is not decisive in September, but it is a considerably healthier position than the one City occupied at the same stage of last season, and it will do little to discourage the growing sense among their supporters that Maresca’s rebuilt squad is settling into its stride far quicker than many expected.
Sunderland, for their part, have little to be ashamed of. A trip to the division’s form side was always going to be the sternest test of their season so far, and taking City’s defenders to three goals against a side spending as freely as they have this year is no mean feat. Le Bris has built a team that plays with real ambition regardless of the opponent, and results like this, even in defeat, suggest that Sunderland’s return to the Premier League is going considerably better than many predicted before a ball was kicked this season.
For Brobbey, the immediate concern will simply be building on Sunday’s showing. Strikers who score hat-tricks against the league’s best sides tend not to stay under the radar for long, and Sunderland will hope his early form is a sign of things to come rather than a one-off afternoon against a City side who were, for large parts of this game, second best. Either way, English football has been given an early glimpse of why Le Bris and his recruitment team moved so decisively to bring him in before the transfer window shut.
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