Manchester City conceded an injury-time goal to suffer a shock losing start to 2012.
With results on Saturday going their way City were looking to take advantage at the Stadium of Light.
But despite hitting the woodwork twice through Edin Dzeko and Micah Richards, the Blues could not break down Martin O'Neill's side and were stung in the final seconds of injury time when substitute Ji Dong-won scored. There was a suspicion of offside but the goal was allowed.
City are still top of the Premier League on goal difference but must pick themselves up quickly to face Liverpool on Tuesday.
City manager Roberto Mancini started with Aguero and David Silva on the bench and left Mario Balotelli out of the 18, but he was forced to bring on the star substitute pair in a desperate search for a winner.
Yet, had either Nicklas Bendtner or Stephane Sessegnon taken the chances which fell their way either side of the break, Sunderland might have been in front long before they did actually take the lead.
Had lone frontman Bendtner shown a little more composure, his side might have headed for the dressing room holding a lead.
Sunderland broke at pace from a third-minute defensive corner and Sessegnon slid the perfect pass into the Dane's run to put him in on goal.
Bendtner took the ball wide of goalkeeper Joe Hart, but crucially not wide enough and the England international was able to make an important block.
Hart had to make a smart save from James McClean's effort two minutes later, but as the half went on, it was a City side featuring six changes from the 0-0 draw at West Brom which began to dominate.
It was not until the half-hour mark had passed that they really made their presence felt.
Mignolet, who was wearing a protective face mask, made a point-blank 32nd-minute block to deny Dzeko, but was then grateful to see Gardner clear Samir Nasri's effort off the line seconds later.
Save
Dzeko rattled the crossbar with a powerful drive 10 minutes before the break and then prompted a comfortable save from Mignolet from distance with two minutes of the half remaining.
Mancini had seen enough and replaced defensive midfielder Nigel de Jong with Aguero at the break, although it was McClean who went close to breaking the deadlock when his 47th-minute cross flew just over the angle of bar and post.
Yaya Toure scuffed a volley wide seconds later after Mignolet had kicked Aleksandar Kolarov's cross away, and Pablo Zabaleta also failed to hit the target after being played into space by captain Vincent Kompany.
Mancini responded by sending on Aguero for Samir Nasri, and the Blues squandered another promising opening within seconds when Dzeko skied a shot high over the bar from Adam Johnson's cross.
City might have taken the lead in controversial circumstances with 59 minutes played when referee Kevin Friend allowed play to continue after Sessegnon went to ground under Kolarov's challenge.
Silva fed the ball to Dzeko, who dropped it off for Aguero to fire in a close-range effort which Mignolet managed to block.
But Sunderland should have been in front with 64 minutes gone when Sessegnon cut inside from the right and found himself with just Hart to beat.
The Benin international pushed his shot agonisingly wide of the far post with the outside of his right foot.
Richards went desperately close to a winner with a minute of normal time remaining when he headed the ball into the ground and saw it come back off the crossbar after Mignolet had parried Silva's shot.
However, the drama was not over and when Sessegnon stabbed the ball into Ji's path, he calmly rounded Hart to snatch the points.
What is your verdict on the action? Have your say.
Sunderland 1 Manchester City 0
January 01, 2012
Comments
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Never laugh at me again!
extreme dissappointment
Hopefully after this performance by Dzeko, he will never wear the blue shirt again he was absolutely abysmal!
Instead of being invited in to ten men, have City tried teasing them out?. If they are going to sit back then can't we play it around until they look daft and they have to come out? Dzeko? Has he borrowed someone else's feet? When he's hot he's hot and when he's cold he is frozen, He needs to get his wisdom feet on instead of norman wisdoms.. You got to laugh. If sunderland play like that then it will go pear-shaped for them.
Gutted just so friggin gutted, dzeko waste of space tonight, should never have dropped a point even if there goal was offside. Dare i say it, typical city.
exactly the same performance, misses and goal in injury time against run of play as last season at Sunderland. No wonder they are called Black Cats. cant help thinking that Silva's form has dipped slightly and everyone else is stood round waiting for him to set up chances. I look forward to rags on our side again. still if you supported that lot you would want to concentrate on other teams' performances rather than your own.
No sour grapes here ! we had all the chances lost to an offside goal, still thats how the cookie crumbles we are in no worse position than we were at the start of the weekend there you go a positive and still top of the league.
I dont normally wander over to the blue side but so many of you were gloating yesterday with us against Blackburn, I would just like to wish you all a very happy new year and what a birthday present for SAF. Well done to Sunderland.
Yawn, boring and lethargic what is it with these games over Christmas and New Year where no one wants to be bothered. Dzeko, Nasri, Toure wanted to be elsewhere maybe at the sales. Poor passing, desperate and scrappy match gifted it to the wearsiders. On a plus STILL top.
After 63 year's of most of the same, I'm not surprised.
Cum on City. And cum on the Bells bottle!
A big lesson to be learnt. We should always play our strongest team and get the points in the bag and then take players off to rest.
I dont want to be critical of players but Yaya spends far too much time watching the game go by and I dont think he will be missed as much as everyone thinks when he goes to African cup.
Nothing up front today at all.
We have to get through this wobbly patch and quickly.
Disgraceful performance!! Too many players not interested today, I'm speechless!!
Shocking pedestrian performance. About half the team neeed to take a long hard look at themselves. It was always going to be a hard game, but the passing was sloppy and very slow for large parts of the game allowing sunderland to get numbers behind the ball time and again. We are capable of far far better.
Referee's assistant should hang his head in shame and forfeit his match fee. Absolute disgrace.
Abysmal performance and it looks like the spark has gone. As I posted recently, the rotation policy is not working and the way forward has to be play the strongest team in every Premiership game. Far too easy for teams to sit deep and watch us struggle to create chances.
When will managers learn that changing a decent team week in week out will not work. Play the best team week in week out thats how the scum have won so many titles they only change the team when players are injured not because the poor little lambs are tired from playing football or chasing super models
Mancini has got to be replaced. Giving him all that money to spend is pointless. He couldn't manage a group of cub scouts. The injuries the rags have had, we should be at least 10 points clear of them by now. He chooses the wrong teams and the wrong tactics. With the money we have spent, winning the league should be easy. He seems to be trying to hand it to the rags. Mancini OUT , OUT, OUT !!
Another appalling team selection when will they learn? Start with your best eleven take control then rest players. Still there won't be too many teams who'll fail to score at WBA and Sunderland. If he fails to finish in the top three then RM will be history, and before you all attack this just think are we reverting to the 1-0 mentality? At least MU played yougsters we used are strength in depth! I'm not laughing cos I've been a supporter since1945.
The ending was absolutely pathetic. I can understand having trouble breaking down the phalanx of defenders, hitting the bar, etc., but the complete lack of effort by most of the players on the pitch in running back to defend Sunderland's final foray forward cost us a valuable point today. Most of our players just stood there well up the pitch and refused to track back. I know that Yaya is criminally overplayed by Mancini, but watch the tape of the end of this and see him just standing there, refusing to move, and the other Blues around him, walking back at a snail's pace. Absolutely shameful.
Very gutted! We didn't take our chances today. The goal was offside but we can't think about that now; it's history. Let's get ready for the scousers. Expect a rags invasion on the site.
Well, Roberto, my heart sank when i saw the starting eleven. This squad rotation has a lot to answer for. We seem to have lost our rhythm, we play far too many back passes, sideways passes and need far too long to get into areas where we could punish the opposition. By the time we get here, they have most of their men behind the ball.
Why not play our strongest team from the start and take key players off once we have imposed ourselves ?
We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory once again today and I wasn`t surprised as Johnson and Dzeko had a nightmare game. Ya Ya was wasteful with his passing, Zab (great fella that he is) wasn`t incisive like Micah is and overall, we seemed to be slow on the uptake and need far too long on the ball.
For a team that scored so many goals earlier in the season, we look like we have lost the plot.
A chance to capitalize on United`s defeat and we blew it big time.
UNLUCKY BLUES -
Well there it is boys and girls... a lapsed moment of concentration and ffs HOW MANY TIMES...Play to the whistle..
DZEKO, KOLAROV, LESCOTT, DEJONG..HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I said there will be twists and turns throughout the season...and there was the evidence !!
MANCINI...He was at fault...we are challenging for the title and he starts of with 5- 6 changes..
This was absolute dreadful to watch !!!
Now heres a thought ...after utd's loss...no comments were allowed from blues ...including mine...Lets see how many bombard this side...
KEEP THE FAITH ...
CITY FOR LIFE !!
what can i say people,what a freak game.Still nothing to worry about and still TOP OF THE POPS
Shocking performance. trying to walk the ball in. We've been worked out by sides battling for a point. Regardless of the winning goal being offside. A point not good enough today. We're not working the goalkeeper enough at the moment. Dzeko was awful, Nasri was worse.Not the sort of display that wins you titles. Only plus point was Richards coming back. We need him in the last third. He is more direct.
Good performance. Pity Edin and Adam had an off day. Not much difference between 1 and 0 points, so the offside goal is irrelevent. We should have enough in reserve to be 6 points clear by the end of the season.
These matches happen when teams park the bus. Not a big deal.