Sunderland 1 Manchester City 0: match report

It is on days like this, and at grounds such as the Stadium of Light, that Premier League titles are won and lost. That makes this a particularly chastening reality check for the title aspirations of Manchester City and particularly their captain, Carlos Tévez.

City suffered their first Premier League defeat to Sunderland in a decade in astonishing circumstances. Tévez was guilty of what could be the biggest miss of his career before Sunderland striker Darren Bent netted a penalty in stoppage time to compound his misery.

Tévez will have to live with that glaring first-half blunder, a brilliant save by Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet to deny Emmanuel Adebayor and then a lapse of concentration in defence that left City trailing Premier League pacesetters Chelsea by five points.

City may have spent £325 million since their Middle Eastern takeover two years ago this week, but it would be almost impossible to put a price on the possible cost of Tévez’s misjudgment should his club end up missing out on the title by one or two points come next May.

“Football is very strange because we played fantastic football in the first half,” said City manager Roberto Mancini. “We had three or four incredible chances but if you don’t score, sometimes you can end up losing. This is football because every game is difficult.

“In the second half we were split into two or three units and it was too easy for Sunderland. It is important we understand why we lost. We can now know that every time we will find this situation where the other teams defend with 10 players behind the ball.’’

Having put Liverpool to the sword at the beginning of the week with two goals in City’s 3-0 win at Eastlands, few would have bet against Tévez – the scorer of 27 goals in his previous 28 starts – maintaining his rich streak of form on Wearside against a side who had started the season poorly.

So when Yaya Touré powered forward after blocking Kieran Richardson’s shot following a Sunderland corner and teed up Tévez with a square ball, it seemed normal service would be resumed. However, Tévez somehow sidefooted over an open goal from eight yards out. The Argentine’s look of disbelief said it all while Touré fell to the ground in disbelief.

“We rode our luck with the Tévez miss and I do not think he will ever miss a chance like that again, but we were due some luck,” Sunderland manager Steve Bruce said.

Until half-time his side struggled to keep up with City despite the tenacious efforts of Lee Cattermole and Jordan Henderson and Mignolet denied Yaya Touré as Bruce’s side toiled. “I don’t think anyone would have expected us to lose at half-time,” said Mancini, who said he did not know if there would be further transfer activity from City. Sunderland certainly improved considerably after the break even though Bruce had to send on Danny Welbeck in place of Fraizer Campbell, who suffered knee ligament damage, and replace the injured Michael Turner with Phil Bardsley.

After the changes, the skilful Steed Malbranque was increasingly influential as City were pushed onto the back foot and Joe Hart suddenly became the busier of the two keepers as enterprising Egyptian Ahmed Elmohamady tested him and Welbeck fired over.

While the pressure on his defence intensified, Sunderland’s Titus Bramble repeatedly thwarted the tireless Tévez as he sought redemption.

It seemed, though, that substitute Adebayor would come to his captain’s rescue. Micah Richards won James Milner’s corner and the Togo forward flicked the ball goalwards from close range only for Mignolet to save brilliantly 11 minutes from time.

Sunderland had been let off the hook again and this time Bent made sure that his team took maximum advantage in a dramatic finale, seemingly invigorated by Mignolet’s exploits.

Elmohamady was allowed space down the right wing and his cross into the goalmouth prompted Micah Richards to wrestle Bent to the floor.

After referee Mike Dean pointed to the spot, Bent got to his feet to beat Hart despite a poorly struck penalty. Hart dived over the ball to concede City’s first goal for nine hours.

“It was such a bad pen he will not be taking any more,” Bruce smiled.Bruce, who is now ready to secure the services of Ghana international Asamoah Gyan from Rennes and revive his pursuit of Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia, also put into perspective the challenge facing City.

“Man City have catapulted into a different league and you wouldn’t have thought that two years ago Man City would be going for the championship,” he added. “The crowd play their part because we are playing a top team and they cheer every challenge and that is what City will have to live with over the next few months.”