Guardiola wins first Premier League match thanks to own goal

Paddy McNair's own goal condemned Sunderland to a 2-1 defeat against Man City on Guardiola's Premier League debut.

McNair had a disastrous debut at Sunderland. Photo: Reuters.

Man City got off to a flying start at the Etihad Stadium with Aguero opening the scoring in the fourth minute from the penalty spot. Sterling had earlier won a penalty after being tripped by Van Aanholt.

However, Sunderland equalised midway through the second half after Jermain Defoe's clever run and finish. The veteran striker would have ruined Pep Guardiola's Premier League debut if it hadn't been for the arrival of youngster Paddy McNair.

The 21-year-old defender, who was signed by Sunderland from Man Utd last week, replaced Defoe and immediately scored. Unfortunately, it was an own goal header that helped Man City win the match.

Winning the first three points, Coach Guardiola's Man City climbed to the top of the Premier League table with Hull, Swansea, and West Brom.

Witnessing Man City's performance in the opening match showed that coach Guardiola still needs time to make his mark. The 45-year-old coach came to the Etihad Stadium with the expectation of a revolution, as he did with Barca and Bayern. However, during the 90 minutes against a lower-ranked opponent like Sunderland, Man City's lack of direct attacks was exposed.

The home team had possession of the ball for over 80% of the time, but Guardiola's control of the game did not bother his counterpart on the other side, David Moyes. The Scottish strategist's team played with discipline, pressed and defended in a layered manner, making Man City not have many opportunities in the 16m50 box.

David Moyes's legacy at Sunderland is more impressive than Guardiola's at Man City. The former Man Utd coach has shown that he is capable of leading a mid-table team to play well, after two years away from the Premier League. Moyes's style of play is not heavy on tactics, but he knows how to bring out the collective strength of a team without stars.

Guardiola begins to experience the rigors of the Premier League. Photo: Reuters.

Meanwhile, Guardiola has begun to make changes at Man City to suit his style of play. Most notably, Guardiola benched Joe Hart and replaced him with Willy Caballero. Despite being a key player for Man City over the years, Hart still had to sit out because Guardiola wanted a goalkeeper with good footwork to increase coordination in defense.

Two new signings, John Stones and Nolito, also started against Sunderland and played well. In the context of the team suffering many injuries, Guardiola also pulled left-back Kolarov to play as a center-back partner with John Stones. This is what he did with David Alaba at Bayern when using a left-footed defender to play in the left center-back position. This helps Man City increase their ability to attack quickly with passes launched from behind the defense.

Next week, Man City will have an important match in the Champions League when they play the first leg of the play-off round at the stadium of Romanian team, Steaua Bucuresti.

According to VNE