Player ratings: Sunderland v Manchester City

Hart – Commanded his area with confidence, and made sharp saves when required. Managed to dive over the penalty. 7

Richards – His concentration, positioning and defending were all looking good until… allowing Bent to get goalside and clumsily leaping over him. The penalty was all to reminiscent of one he conceded at White Hart Lane last year. 6

Lescott (Adebayor 74) – Once again he didn’t do a great deal wrong defensively. Still wasn’t sharp enough with his passing to properly augment the attack in the first half. 6

K Toure – Lacked the authority of previous games and looked increasingly flustered, though he did defend the area well. 6

Kompany – Increasingly important as the game wore on when balls starting coming into our penalty area. Stood tall as our best defender. 7

de Jong – Tried his best to keep Sunderland at bay, but needed more help from his colleagues in the second half. Unable to get us moving forward when we needed to. 6

Barry – Looked ok in the first half but disappeared when Sunderland upped the pace in the second period. At least he didn’t suffer defensively at left-back and made a couple of timely blocks. When defending deep Gareth lacks the pace to get forward quickly enough. 5

Y Toure – Excellent during the first half, particularly with the run that set up Tevez. His lack of influence in the second half indicates his fitness levels aren’t yet up to scratch. 7

Milner – A disappointing second performance. Link up play was sloppy and his lack of pace enabled Sunderland to crowd him out. Still managed to put over a couple of telling crosses, but we lacked the presence in the penalty area to get on the end of them. 5

A Johnson (Silva 80) – Unable to repeat his glorious goal last season. Struggled to show his quality as Richardson did surprisingly well against the native Wearsider. 6

Tevez – Aside from the miss, this wasn’t Carlos’ finest match. To often his link-up play failed to find team-mates. Following the miss he seemed intent on trying to take on Sunderland single-handed whenever he got the chance. They weren’t going to let him dance round them and he needed to bring in colleagues. 5

Subs:

Adebayor – Came closest to scoring in the second half with a backheel volley – a great effort. Tried to take the game to Sunderland without ever looking like breaking through. 6

Silva – Not able to get into the game. 5

Jo – Barely time to get a touch.

Man of the match: No-one warranted it in the second half, so it goes to Yaya for at least looking good in the opening period.