Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta is desperate to end his side’s struggles against Sunderland when they clash in the Premier League.
City have lost on their last four visits to the Stadium of Light, each time going down 1-0, and haven’t won there since August 2008.
Zabaleta wasn’t in the match squad for that 3-0 victory, having only signed for the club from Espanyol that morning, and therefore has never won away from home against Sunderland.
“Maybe I’m the jinx!” said the Argentinian. “But runs of results like this are there to be ended and if we play the way we did at Southampton we have a good chance of coming away with a victory.
“I felt after the game that we had performed much more like the way we know we can play and we were happy.
“Collectively we needed to improve and though there is still a long way to go, our win at Southampton was our third in a row which ended a great week for us.”
Sunderland’s 0-0 draw against league leaders Chelsea closed out an unbeaten month for the north east side, conceding just two goals in four league games.
Their recent run of results, which has moved them out of the relegation zone into 13th place, is a stark contrast to October, when the Black Cats conceded 11 goals in the just three games.
“Defensively they’ve been really solid apart from that one game against Southampton – but we will see because maybe they will play with width and try and attack us,” Zabaleta added.
“I don’t expect there to be space up front against Sunderland because against Chelsea, they changed the way they played and defended much deeper – they did a really good job, too.”
Zabaleta’s manager, Manuel Pellegrini, mirrored his player’s views on the challenge of facing their bogie team.
“Sunderland is a tough team to play against. They defend well at home and away,” said Pellegrini.
“They’re a side who know exactly what they need to do in the game. We hope we will have more luck there this year.”
With Frank Lampard’s loan due to expire soon, Pellegrini again faced a number of questions about the former England captain, who scored again against Southampton.
“We have the whole of December to decide about his future,” the Chilean added.
“When he came here I expected him to be the same player as he was in England in the last 12 years, because he is a top player.
“Maybe he can’t play three games in a week, but his quality is still the same as before.”
Vincent Kompany, who limped off in the Southampton game, was ruled out this afternoon, and Matija Nastasic has a thigh injury which will keep him out for another week.
The 61-year-old manager was tight-lipped on who he would start at centre back, but speculated that it would be two of Dedryck Boyata, Martin Demichelis, or Bacary Sagna.
Main image courtesy of Manchester City via YouTube, with thanks.
