Manchester City vs Sunderland - prediction, team news, lineups

By Oliver Thomas | 18 Sep 2026 17:00, Last updated: 18 Sep 2026 18:00

Manchester City will be looking to make it five wins out of five in the Premier League when they welcome Sunderland to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Citizens eased to a five-goal victory over Norwich City in the EFL Cup on Thursday, a day after the Black Cats secured their maiden Europa League win against AZ Alkmaar.

Enzo Maresca is loving life as Man City manager after steering his new side to six successive victories across three different competitions, scoring 15 goals and keeping a clean sheet in each of the last four matches.

A much-changed Citizens side put Championship outfit Norwich to the sword 5-0 at the Etihad on Thursday, with 17-year-old academy graduate Floyd Samba – the son of former PL defender Christopher Samba – grabbing the headlines with two goals on his “mind blowing” full debut.

Man City entered that game on the back of a controversial derby triumph over rivals Manchester United in the top flight, though Maresca has insisted that his team’s “unbelievable” performance with 10 men for over an hour should not be overshadowed by VAR’s error around Erling Haaland's winning goal.

Sitting joint-top of the table alongside champions Arsenal, Man City have been beaten in only two of their last 30 Premier League games (W20 D8), and they will endeavour to win their first five matches of a top-flight campaign for the fifth time this weekend.

The Citizens will fancy their chances of success against Sunderland, as they are unbeaten in all 14 of their Premier League home meetings with the Black Cats (W12 D2), last suffering defeat in January 1998 (1-0) at Maine Road.

Maresca, meanwhile, could become just the sixth manager to win his first five Premier League matches in charge of a club after Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, 2009), Pep Guardiola (Man City, 2016), Craig Shakespeare (Leicester, 2017), Maurizio Sarri (Chelsea, 2018) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Man United, 2018-19).

Back in Europe for the first time in 53 years, Sunderland secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory over AZ Alkmaar in their opening Europa League fixture on a memorable night at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday.

Enzo Le Fee made amends for his penalty miss in a 2-0 Premier League loss to Arsenal last weekend, as he stepped up to slot home the second-half match-winner from 12 yards and ultimately seal the club’s third successive 1-0 home win of the season in all competitions, having previously beaten Fulham (PL) and Hull (EFL Cup) by that scoreline.

Head coach Regis Le Bris admitted that his players looked “a bit exhausted” after their exertions in the defeat to Arsenal a few days earlier. However, he was beaming with pride after beating AZ as his team displayed “heart and togetherness” that he believes the home crowd “deserves”, five years on from watching their side play in League One.

Attention now shifts back to the Premier League and Sunderland currently have four points on the board from as many matches (W1 D1 L2). They are yet to win away from home this term and will go three games without a victory on the road for the first time since January if they drop points at Man City.

The Black Cats have never won at the Etihad before, though, losing 3-0 there in December last year, while they have failed to come out on top in any of their last 17 Premier League matches against teams starting the day in the top two (D4 L13).

Man City’s Phil Foden will serve the second of a three-game suspension this weekend following his red card in the Manchester derby, but Maresca has confirmed that Jeremy Doku “probably” can be available to face Sunderland after missing six games with a calf injury.

Doku is unlikely to start, though, so Iliman Ndiaye and Antoine Semenyo could be handed starts out wide, with Maresca expected to revert to a strong first XI also including the likes of Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernandez, Marc Guehi and Ruben Dias.

Despite Samba’s eye-catching debut, Erling Haaland is expected to lead the line. Out of 25 Premier League opponents the Norwegian has faced, Sunderland stand alone as the only club to prevent him from scoring, marring an otherwise perfect record against 24 teams.

As for the Black Cats, injured pair Habib Diarra (thigh) and Romaine Mundle (knee) remain unavailable, while Reinildo Mandava is suspended following his red card in the defeat to Arsenal.

Omar Alderete will be assessed after coming off with an apparent muscle problem in midweek. Daniel Ballard is expected to replace him at centre-back, while summer signing Dayann Methalie is in contention to make his first Premier League start at left-back in the absence of Reinildo.

Attacker Nilson Angulo will be hoping to force his way back into the side at the expense of Deadline Day arrival Malick Fofana, while Brian Brobbey is set to take the place of Wilson Isidor up front.

Manchester City possible starting lineup:

Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol; Anderson, Fernandez; Ndiaye, Cherki, Semenyo; Haaland

Roefs; Mukiele, Danso, Ballard, Methalie; Xhaka, Sadiki; Meunier, Le Fee, Angulo; Brobbey

While both teams enter this contest on the back of positive midweek results, a refreshed Manchester City side oozing confidence will be regarded as firm favourites given their flawless start to the top-flight campaign and their historically superior home record over Sunderland.

With Maresca set to recall several star names to his starting lineup, we expect a clinical Citizens outfit to break down the Black Cats and claim a routine victory to preserve their perfect record.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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