Full Time: Manchester City 3-0 Sunderland - One Way Traffic Couldn't Be Halted

There was a brighter start to the second half for Sunderland with Adam Johnson getting in a good crossing area but nothing coming from it.

Steven Fletcher was the next to apply some pressure to the City goalmouth with a venomous strike well blocked by Micah Richards, the less said about Seb Larsson's left footed follow up though the better.

It was the home side who then went immediately on the offensive in a pulsating opening five minutes, with Carlos Tevez seeing a shot blocked on the line by Danny Rose, with Mario Balotelli firing waywardly on the rebound.

With hardly time to catch your breath it was then once again our turn to maraud forward. An offside Steven Fletcher header seemed destined for the bottom corner, but was superbly denied by Joe Hart, and of course the linesman's flag. Adam Johnson was nearly in on the action only to be denied by a last ditch and well timed tackle from Aleksander Kolarov.

Kolarov turned provider just two minutes later as his whipped cross was inches away from the toe of Balotelli, and that proved to be the last action for the troublesome Italian as he was immediately replaced by Sergio Aguero.

It was Micah Richards who was next to make an effort on goal as he leaped the highest to meet James Milner's corner, forcing Simon Mignolet into an acrobatic, but relatively easy save. An important stop, but one for the cameras.

With the home side kicking things up a notch it was inevitable that the quality would eventually come through and it was Sergio Aguero who made it 2-0 on the hour mark. Kolarov once again involved as he evaded James McClean to whip the ball low into the six-yard box, and Aguero couldn't miss as he nipped in ahead of Carlos Cuellar.

Our reaction was subdued. More of the same one-way traffic as David Vaughan came on to replace Danny Rose, Jack Colback moving to left back. Louis Saha also came on for Adam Johnson, who was given a ripple of applause from the home fans. A nice touch, although an easy gesture when you're 2-0 up and cruising.

Carlos Tevez came close to making it 3-0 shortly after the subs with our defence carved open far, far too easily, and Tevez given the freedom of Eastlands to bear down on Simon Mignolet's goal, eventually firing wide. Just moment's later he was once again out-pacing our defence, and Mignolet himself as he got around the 'keeper to play back to David Silva, however the Spaniard's dainty chip thankfully came back off the woodwork.

A rare sight of goal for Sunderland came as following a corner, James McClean made his first decent contribution to the game by flicking a header towards the far post, and Hart punching away off the line under pressure from Sessegnon.

The final fifteen minutes of the game seemed to peter out a little bit. The home side firmly in control, and seemingly intent on scoring a great goal as opposed to any goal thankfully. We still enjoyed our moments of possession, but other than Fletcher firing right down the throat of Joe Hart there was little to get over-excited about on that front up until the final five minutes when Craig Gardner got in his obligatory long-ranger which won us a corner.

The icing was put on a pretty sour cake for us when James "The Meat Rectangle" Milner (copyright Alexander Netherton) got on the scoresheet in much the same way City opened the game - a viciously hit freekick from an angle which should have never yielded a goal.

All in all you can look at the game a number of ways. We were away to a much, much better team. Last season's Premier League champions, with some players on the bench who cost more than our entire first eleven. However, we didn't give ourselves much of a chance of an upset with some woeful attacking play, some lax defending, and all in all performing in a way which meant City didn't have to really get out of second gear for the majority of the game.

It's not a game we would have expected to win, and I don't think anyone did. You can't help but feel we might have upped things slightly though.

You can read our report of the first half HERE, and we'll have further reaction from the game with Player Ratings and more tonight and across the weekend.