Premier League: Man City enter banana-skin territory

Man City have got a dismal record away to Sunderland

Michael Lintorn is amazed at how big Sunderland's odds are given their home record against Man City...

Man City's 3-0 victory over Southampton was significant for many reasons: it enabled them to pass the Saints in second, it was the first time that they earned more points than Chelsea on a matchday in 2014/15 and also completed their first three-game winning run in all competitions this term.

However, celebrations have remained muted due to what comes next: Sunderland away and Everton at home. To most title aspirants, that double header would yell "four points minimum". To Man City, it is the ultimate bogey marathon, a concept as intimidating as going three hours with Real Madrid.

There is reason to suspect that the worst of their weakness to Everton has passed. Having lost nine times in 12 meetings with the Toffees, they did the double over them for the first time in 33 years in 2013/14. There is no such sense that they have overcome their aversion to Wearside though.

Man City have been beaten 0-1 on each of their previous four visits to the Stadium of Light and haven't won there since 2008, yet are a skinny 1.548/15 to fix that on Wednesday. You can find odds as high as 7.06/1 on the Sunderland triumph, and 22.021/1 that they deliver it by the favoured 1-0 scoreline.

Surely such an "upset" is more likely this season than on near enough every prior occasion, given both Man City's iffy recent road results - losing to West Ham and drawing at QPR before defeating Southampton - and how the Black Cats have perfected the art of stifling the elite under Gus Poyet.

They secured Premier League survival from the supposedly impossible position of bottom at Christmas by drawing away to Manuel Pellegrini's men, then winning at Chelsea and Man United in one heroic two-and-a-half-week springtime stretch.

Poyet's side have since shown that sequence was no desperation-fuelled fluke by holding Man United, Tottenham and Everton to score draws in this campaign.

Those results were topped by a 0-0 draw with Chelsea last time out in which they became the first team to stop the unbeaten leaders from scoring and the only club without a title to their name in the past decade to take points off them.

The perception of Sunderland has been distorted massively by their 0-8 disintegration at Southampton. Though their defending that day was the comedy highlight of 2014/15 to date, it didn't provide an accurate impression.

It was one of just three defeats suffered in 13 Premier League matches - only Chelsea and Man City have lost fewer.

Recommended Bet: Lay Man City to win at Sunderland @ 1.558/15