Manchester City's coach is cautious after the 5-3 victory over Sunderland. Enzo Maresca believes it is too early to talk about The Citizens leading the Premier League title race.
The dramatic victory at Etihad helps Man City have 15 points after 5 rounds, 3 points more than Arsenal after the defending champions lost to Brighton.
Winning is always better. Having 3 more points is definitely better than not having any points. However, the season is still very long. The international holiday is a suitable time for us to look back at what we have done, identify the points that need to be improved and have more rest time" - Man City coach shared.
Assessing his performance against Sunderland, Maresca said: "I prefer a 1-0 victory to a 5-3, but I predicted this would be a very difficult match. I know Sunderland played so well and put intense pressure when they were without the ball. I am very happy that the team found a way to win.
We scored 5 goals and could have scored more. That shows that the team created enough chances, but at the same time needs to limit goals conceded like today. Man City has kept a clean sheet for 4 consecutive matches before this match, but today we conceded 3 goals.
Man City twice took the lead in the first half thanks to goals from Enzo Fernandez and Rayan Cherki, but Sunderland quickly found an equalizer with a double from Brian Brobbey. Antoine Semenyo then scored in the 43rd minute, helping the home team enter the break with a 3-2 advantage.
In the second half, Semenyo continued to score, increasing the score to 4-2. Brobbey completed a hat-trick in the 59th minute, before Erling Haaland scored in the final minutes to seal a 5-3 victory for Man City.
Brobbey became the first player since Roque Santa Cruz to score a hat-trick in a Premier League match where his team still suffered a defeat. Santa Cruz scored 3 goals for Blackburn in the 3-5 defeat to Wigan in December 2007.
The controversial situation occurred when Elliot Anderson seemed to use his hand to play the ball in the penalty area but was not penalized. Immediately after that, Man City organized an attack and Semenyo scored the second goal.
Sunderland coach Regis Le Bris believes that his team has reason to be dissatisfied with this situation.
It's hard not to think it was a handball. The situation happened and we had to accept the referee's decision. This is a defeat, but we can be proud of the team's performance.
Facing one of the strongest teams in Europe is always a very big challenge. Just a small chance can be punished, and that is probably the lesson we learned from today's match" - Le Bris said.
With Man City, 3 goals conceded show that Maresca's team still has problems to solve if they want to maintain stability in the long journey ahead.
