City leapfrogged Chelsea into third place in the premier league today with an impressive 5 – 0 win over Sunderland at Eastlands. There were no complaints of negative tactics in this game with City adopting an ambitious 4-2-4 formation rather than the usual 4-3-3 of recent games.

Barry was sacrificed for the more attacking Adam Johnson, leaving a 2 man central midfield of Yaya Toure and Nigel De Jong. Tevez and Balotelli led the line in the central attacking roles with Silva and Johnson providing the width and creativity starting from the left and right respectively.

With Micah Richards sidelined for about 6 weeks and Zabaleta still unavailable Boyata came in at right back and looked like he’d been playing there all season. It was another solid performance from the back four with Joe Hart not having to make a single save in the match.

City started the game very well and put pressure on the Sunderland defense right from the start. That pressure was rewarded in the 9th minute when Adam Johnson drove at the Sunderland defense and after a good one-two at the edge of the box with Yaya Toure, fired the ball left footed past the Sunderland keeper.

It wasn’t long before City made it two. Six minutes in fact. Phil Bardsley hacked Tevez down in the box and the fiesty Argentinian dispatched from the spot. The keeper managing to get fingertips to it but only managing to push it oonto the inside of the post.

Happy with the early 2-0 lead, City then took their foot off the gas for the rest of the first half with Sunderland enjoying a fair share of the posession. But it was to no avail and Joe Hart was rarely tested in the City goal.

Sunderland started the second half well and started to push more players forward as they enjoyed a better spell of possession. But it was City who added to their lead in the 62nd minute. Carlos Tevez did well down the right and squared the ball to Balotelli a few yards from the penalty spot. Balotelli’s shot was blocked and David Silva reacted the quickest to turn the ball into the net. The Sunderland players heads dropped after this goal with the run of six games without a win seemingly affecting their confidence.

Patrick Viera came on to replace the tiring Adam Johnson in the 65th minute who had an excellent first game back but looks as if he needs a few more games to get back to full match fitness. Viera’s first touch was to deflect a fierce Kolarov drive from the left into the net. It was a close call as to whether the ball crossed the line but the linesman got it right and gave the goal.

Two minutes later Mancini made his second change. Paddy McGivern came on for his debut replacing another academy graduate Boyata at right back. Boyata looked very acomplished at right back and looks more than capable of filling in in this role in the future. It was a good time to make a debut 4-0 up but I’m sure he would have preferred to come on at left back as he looked a little uncomfrotable on the right.

A few minutes later and it was five. Kolarov chased down a clearance on the left of the Sunderland defense and forced a mistake from Cattermole who chipped the ball back towards his own goal with the ball eventually running through to Yaya Toure who calmy chipped the ball past the Sunderland keeper.

Shaun Wright-Phillips came on for a late cameo replacing the excellent David Silva and other than a good Balotelli free-kick saved by the Sunderland keeper in the last minute there were few other chances.

Overall it was a very good City performance and hopefully a taste of things to come for the rest of the season. With Tottenham getting another goalless draw and Chelsea and Arsenal drawing it was a very good weekend for City.

The question now is, how high can we finish? Should we just settle for fourth or can we do better?