Manchester City will clash with Sunderland in what promises to be an interesting Premier League game at the Etihad Stadium on December 6th, 2025, Softfootball reports.
Manchester City are known to have more control as seen in their recent Premier League meetings where they have won almost all.
Recently, Manchester City defeated Fulham 5-4 at Craven Cottage in a pulsating match and the Cityzens will take that goalscoring confidence into their game on Saturday against Sunderland.
On the other hand, Sunderland has built a strong form recently as they’ve drawn or won most of their recent matches including a 1-1 draw with Liverpool in a Premier League match at Anfield.
Manchester City shared the match schedule on the club’s official X handle:
In total, Manchester city and Sunderland have met 29 times in competitive matches where City have won 21 and Sunderland won 5 of the matches with 3 games ending in draws. Sunderland has never beaten City at Etihad.
They’ve played 15 matches at Etihad and City won 13 while the remaining 2 ended in draws. Erling Haaland remains City’s top scoring threat, having scored his 100th Premier League goal in the match against Fulham.
His top skills and ability to score on any occasion makes him dangerous for Sunderland’s defence. For Sunderland, Granit Xhaka’s leadership and experience will come in handy to help the team stay compact and face City’s attack.
Man city coach, Pep Guardiola spoke ahead of the match in a pre match conference which was shared on the club’s official X handle. He gave his thoughts on their Sunderland opponents, saying,
All I can say from my opinion is that they deserve to be where they are. When you are promoted and you play well for five games, okay, momentum. It can happen. But for 14 fixtures in the Premier League with opponents like everyone suffers to get results in that position, they deserve… They do it well otherwise, they won’t be where they are. It’s a good challenge for us.
See the Pre-match conference below:
In a pre-match conference shared on Sunderland’s official X handle, their head coach, Le Bris also gave his thoughts on the upcoming clash with Manchester city. He said,
We are building our confidence through different experiences like our collective knowledge, which is positive. Manchester City is probably one of the best teams in this league with the ball so we know that the pitch is big and that we’ll face one of the toughest challenges this season. This league is like that. You don’t have time to recover. We switch on and we go again. But we are looking forward to playing this game.
Team News
For Manchester City, it is unlikely that Mateo Kovacic will play because of an ankle injury. Rodri is still recovering from his muscle injury and his participation is uncertain.
Sunderland’s Aji Alese is faced with shoulder injury and Habib Diarra is still recovering from a groin surgery, so they will be unavailable.
Possible Lineups
Manchester City (4-2-3-1)
Gianluigi Donnarumma; Khusanov, John Stones, Josko Gvardiol, Nico O’Reilly; Nico Gonzalez, Tijjani Reijnders; Cherki, Phil Foden, Jérémy Doku; Erling Haaland
Sunderland (4-2-3)
Robin Roefs; Nordi Mukiele, Daniel Ballard, Omar Alderete, Reinildo; Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki; Enzo Le Fee, Chemsdine Talbi, Wilson Isidor
Prediction
Given Manchester City’s strength at home, Sunderland would have a bit of a hard time but they could show resilience and set up a strong counterattack. Since Manchester City are strong favourites the game will likely end in a 3-1 win for them.
Manchester City 3-1 Sunderland
