#3 The transfer window is far from over for both these teams
Jermain Defoe is that magical, rare commodity of a Premier League proven goal-scorer that sides at the top, bottom and indeed the middle of the table crave for. He should be nothing less than a demi-god in the North East, scoring bags of goals at the back end of last season to keep the Black Cats up at the expense of their bitter rivals Newcastle, who descended into the Championship.
In this game, he gave Sunderland a glimmer of hope as he briefly equalized for the Black Cats. However, soon to turn 34, Defoe is knocking on and is frequently sidelined by injuries. Sunderland have a decent squad as mentioned earlier, but the bane of all basement boy teams is that for all their grit and effort in defending, they do not find the back of the net at the other end enough to keep them up. David Moyes needs to make a move for a striker before the window closes.
The expectation of total dominance has followed Pep Guardiola, and in addition to the attack starting the match today, City have the likes of Leroy Sane, Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfried Bony, Samir Nasri, Jesus Navas and Gabriel Jesus to ensure that there is more than enough quality in attack to mount a challenge for trophies in the three major competitions if not the League Cup as well.
Ilkay Gundogan is expected to make the role of a midfield pivot his own, and there are the likes of Fabian Delph, Yaya Toure, Fernando and Fernandinho to man that part of the pitch. However, the defence puzzle is still not solved despite the £47.5 million acquisition of John Stones, and we can expect him to sign maybe a versatile young fullback and likely a new sweeper-keeper.
