Man City vs Sunderland - Sun 22nd Mar 15:00 pm

Up next for City at Eastlands is Sunderland, after our tiresome midweek exploits hopefully we can get on with what we do best, winning home games.


After City left us all on the edge of our seats in the last game, against Sunderland I think we would all appreciate a nice and simple win. A win against Sunderland today would represent a good three points, we are in a strange position at the moment in the league. If we don't win today we could definitely be looking at getting dragged into a relegation battle, if we do win we will hopefully drag ourselves back into the battle for seventh place.

We will have to be prepared for a tough game today, Sunderland are only three points above the drop zone and will come out fighting. I am not worried about Sunderland to much though, they may show some fighting spirit but they lack in quality, we should be able to absorb any kind of pressure they put on us. We have more than enough quality going forward and against a poor defence I am hoping we can more or less win the game in the first half today. If we can wrap up the game early on it would also mean that we could take some of our senior players off, for what I am sure would be a welcome rest.

I am expecting better performances from a couple of our star players against Sunderland, Robinho and Wright-Phillips have been in erratic form since the beginning of the season. It is becoming rather frustrating especially Robinho, he has so much quality it is untrue, yet he is putting in either average or below average performances. Wright-phillips is a little less frustrating than Robinho, we at least get a few good games before we get a couple of bad ones out of him, but still its not good enough we need our better players to set an example of consistency to the rest of the team.

City team news:
Nigel De Jong should return to the starting eleven after being ineligible for the Uefa Cup, Bellamy may also make a return after being out with a knee injury. City are sweating on the fitness of Vincent Kompany, Stephen Ireland and Wayne Bridge, Kompany has been struggling with a toe injury for the past few weeks, whilst Ireland and Bridge picked up injuries against Aalborg.

Sunderland team news:
Anton Ferdinand and Nyron Nosworthy were back in full training this week and both may make a return to the Sunderland defence. Teemu Tainio is set to miss out with a knee injury, Kieran Richardson is suspended and Tal Ben-Haim is not eligible due to the terms of his loan from City.

Possible Man City line up: Given, Richards, Dunne, Onuoha, Garrido, Zabaleta, De Jong, Ireland, Wright-Phillips, Robinho, Bellamy.

Possible Sunderland line up: Gordon, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Collins, McCartney, Malbranque, Whitehead, Leadbitter, Reid, Jones, Cisse.

My prediction: Man City 3 - 0 Sunderland

Worth a bet: Robinho and Wright-Phillips score in a 3 - 0 City win.