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Manchester City maintained its perfect start in the Premier League, but had to accept a less comfortable truth: even an attack this rich can spend an afternoon chasing its own defensive lapses. The 5-3 win over Sunderland will be remembered above all as the match of Enzo Fernández’s first goal in his new colors, amid a scenario far more turbulent than a simple leaders’ victory.
A first goal that came at the right time
It gave City some breathing room in a match where Sunderland refused to play the role of a polite promoted side.
Enzo Fernández’s goal did more than add a line to the scoresheet. It gave City some breathing room in a match where Sunderland refused to play the role of a polite promoted side. The Argentine, who arrived with the reputation of a midfielder capable of breaking lines both with his passing and his runs forward, needed a strong moment to begin writing his Manchester story. He found it in an open match, almost too open for a coach’s liking.
City eventually scored five times, with Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo, Erling Haaland and Fernández among the attacking protagonists. The variety of scorers tells a clear story of strength: the team does not depend on a single route to goal. When the opponent locks down the middle, Semenyo’s runs carry weight. When the rhythm becomes muddled, Haaland’s presence remains a threat until the final ball. And when the midfield finds the right opening, Fernández can now strike too.
Sunderland refused to lower its gaze
The score says many things, but not that City controlled its match. Sunderland scored three times, and Brian Brobbey turned the afternoon into a constant duel with the Manchester defense. His hat-trick forced City to replay several times a match it thought it had already put in its pocket. For a promoted side to score three goals away to the leader building a perfect run is anything but insignificant.
This resistance also gives City’s victory a clearer value. Enzo Maresca’s team did not merely benefit from its technical power; it had to absorb equalizers, poorly managed transitions and the deeply unpleasant feeling that a spectacular match can turn on a positional error. In that context, Fernández’s first goal takes on added significance: it came in a match where every advantage had to be seized, not simply managed.
A brilliant attack, a defense put on notice
Five wins in five matchdays give City a clear lead in the table and momentum that nobody can ignore. But this 5-3 also contains a warning. Conceding three goals against Sunderland, even in a wild match, will force Maresca to review some of the distances between his lines. Ambitious teams can live with a disorderly afternoon; they cannot make a habit of it.
The positive point is that City already has enough resources to win even when everything is not clean. Fernández has opened his account, Cherki continues to provide invention, Semenyo carries weight in decisive areas and Haaland once again slammed the door when Sunderland believed it could come back one last time. This is not a perfectly tuned team. It is a team that already knows how to punish.
The coming weeks will show whether this goal permanently frees Fernández in the final third. City did not sign a mere finisher, but a player capable of adding substance to the play and changing the tempo. If he regularly adds this shooting threat, the leaders gain one more weapon. And given the state of their defense on Sunday, a few extra weapons will not be kept too far away.