WHOEVER writes Shaun-Wright Phillips’ scripts ought to be worth a fortune.

Just three days after bouncing into Eastlands wearing his trade mark grin and some dodgy, but fashionable, London gear, the most popular Blues player in the last decade marked his second coming with two stunningly well taken goals – his first for the club since Villa Park in May 2005.

More importantly, however, the whole team laid down a mightily significant marker in terms of how prominent they might be in the Premier League table come next May.

Off the pace at Villa and then not fully extended against ten-man West Ham this was a real test for the Blues against a rebuilt and confident Sunderland side backed by a noisy and partisan crowd.

They passed the exam paper with flying colours matching the home side in terms of sweat and application then providing the coup de grace with a trio of goals that were a triumph for attacking variety.

Football’s capacity for change never ceases to take the breath away and a look at the team sheet for this contest shows just why.

0ne hundred and forty-seven days, or if you prefer 21 weeks, ago City travelled to the Stadium of Light and won 2-1 thanks to a Darius Vassell mishit.

Of the 22 players on view that afternoon only 12 remained in the starting elevens yesterday and of course since then the Blues have also changed their manager.

And no one can say that Mark Hughes and his backroom staff have not effected a positive change adding significant muscle and backbone to a squad that was already technically adept but could sometimes be found short of man power in the trenches and brittle in games of attrition like this.

The resolve and tenacity that went missing for the second half of last term when it became clear that Sven would be axed in the summer was there for all to see in adversity at Midtjylland and it was in plainly evident against the Black Cats.

Vincent Kompany, Tal Ben Haim, Jo, Pablo Zabaleta and Wright-Phillips may not trouble the vote counters or engravers when it comes to the election of World and European Players of the Year in 2009 but they represent tremendous business for the new City chief.

All of them are internationals and each is yet to reach his best years. They should all take the club forward in a manner the supporters’ want without the help of an ageing ‘galactico’.

Wright-Phillips is the latest of these shrewd purchases to pull on the shirt and three years and six weeks after he cried off City’s friendly at Macclesfield Town with a ‘stomach bug’ and headed off to sign for Chelsea the England winger donned the famous number eight as worn by Colin Bell and took up his familiar station on the right flank.

His selection was made easier by the absence, with a knee strain sustained in Denmark, of Martin Petrov and presumably spared Stevie Ireland who has been in irresistible form since Hughes stopped someone flogging him off on the cheap to yesterday’s opponents, Blackburn or Bolton.

Ireland more than justified his selection notching the opening goal in first half injury time when neatly converting the rebound after Danny Collins could only divert Michael Johnson’s low cross into his path.

The move for the opener contained a telling contribution from Didi Hamann whose presence in a five-man midfield was a smart move and provided a comfort blanket for the back four and help for Vincent Kompany.

The German-Belgian axis certainly gave the Blues a less porous quality than present in the previous two away Premier League games in which they conceded a dozen goals.

Hamann’s ability to take the sting out of a game, win free kicks, and distribute short, telling passes remains a potent weapon for Hughes and Kompany for the second week in succession looked the complete player.

Despite their contributions, there is no masking the buzz that SWP’s return has created amongst City fans who spent some time in Midtjylland last Thursday afternoon regaling locals with the news that ‘Shauny’s coming home’ and then gave him a standing ovation as he emerged for the game at the Stadium of Light.

As second comings go it couldn’t have been much better with both goals arriving in an eight minute spell just after the interval.

The first was a tap in after Kompany and Michael Johnson has worked a shooting chance for Jo that he dragged across the face of goal but the second was a sweet flick beyond Craig Gordon after a stunningly weighted long pass from Michael Ball.

That goal gave the afternoon a gloss though in fairness until the first goal it had been fairly tough and City had to show plenty of willingness and appetite for a battle against those world wise, well-travelled strikers El-Hadji Diouf and Djibril Cisse whose movement is always clever and matched only by their ability to win free kicks and annoy opposition fans in equal measure.

Those two left the fray once the third went in and with City in imperious control, a string of Sunderland yellow cards were the most notable occurrences in the last half hour.

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