What’s happening to Steve Bruce’s Sunderland? It looks like somebody had told them football was a 75 minute game. They conceded twice in the last 15 minutes to draw to Birmingham in the opening day, and again accepted the odd goal to lose at WBA last weekend. Well, at least Darren Bent scored a brace from open play in the midweek vs Colchester, although they still seemed to slow down afterwards.

The Citizens are firing on all cylinders. They didn’t do much at the Lane in the opening day but still went home with a point, but at Eastlands against Liverpool they certainly deserved their 3-0 win. They had also won both legs vs Timisoara, and have yet to concede a single goal in 4 games this season in all competitions.

Last season the Citizens fell into the trap and settled for a draw at the Stadium of Light. That is their only draw vs Sunderland in the last 10 H2H games though (City won the other 9 games).

Both Turner and ‘skipper’ Cattermole should be able to start for the Black Cats, while Balotelli could be back for the visitors. Still no Kolarov or Boateng though.

Possible away win, but we won’t be betting on it. Manchester City were only 6-9-4 on the road last season, and we won’t believe they can do better this season until we see it.