MANCHESTER City hit the Premiership summit with a hard-fought victory at Sunderland - and extended their unbeaten league run to 11 games.

They might only be there for 24 hours, but the Blues' second away win in four days has propelled them to top-spot with seven points from their first three games.

Darius Vassell broke his league duck with a sharply taken goal early on before a resurgent Trevor Sinclair put City in command after 34 minutes.

Anthony Le Tallec, who had earlier passed up two glorious opportunities, pulled one back for the home side four minutes before the break to set up a second-half fightback, but City held firm to continue their encouraging start to the season.

The result may have been tough on Mick McCarthy’s men, who recovered from a sloppy start to make a real game of it in front of 33,357 fans, but that will be of little concern to Stuart Pearce, who has now presided over his club’s longest unbeaten run in the top flight since 1977.

Squandered

Former Newcastle striker Andy Cole squandered a golden opportunity to open the scoring when he burst between Alan Stubbs and Gary Breen and stabbed a third-minute shot straight at keeper Kelvin Davis.

However the Blues were soon ahead when Claudio Reyna, one of the high-profile names sold by McCarthy after his arrival on Wearside in March 2003, fed Joey Barton and when he once again split the home defence, Vassell expertly guided the ball past Davis.

To their credit, Sunderland rallied and should have been back in the game on 22 minutes when Le Tallec burst clear to collect Andy Welsh’s ball over the top - the winger had been cleared to play just hours before kick-off after having his red card at Liverpool on Saturday rescinded - but could not beat David James.

Le Tallec’s misses were to prove costly 10 minutes before the break when, after exchanging passes with Cole and with the help of at least one kind deflection, Sinclair curled a superb shot past Davis’ outstretched right hand.

However, Le Tallec made amends on 41 minutes when he rose along with Richard Dunne to challenge for a Whitehead corner and the ball flew into the net.

Escaped

Jon Stead, a £1.8million signing from Blackburn, arrived as a half-time replacement for Andy Gray, but it was Le Tallec to whom the chances continued to fall, the Frenchman heading over from Elliott’s 48th-minute cross after the Republic of Ireland international had escaped from Ben Thatcher down the Sunderland right.

But as the home side pushed forward in the search for an equaliser, City exploited the space they left behind and created three chances in quick succession.

Sinclair blazed over wastefully from distance and Cole was unable to make the most of a neat turn inside the box, but it took a fine save from Davis to deny the former Manchester United man on 51 minutes.

Winger Sinclair again found space down the right and used it well to pick out the striker at the near post, but his side-footed shot was well-anticipated by the keeper, who dived to his left to turn it away.

The home side went close on 71 minutes when Stead found Le Tallec wide on the left and his cross was headed just wide by Whitehead with James completely wrong-footed.

McCarthy replaced Le Tallec with midfielder Liam Lawrence with seven minutes remaining, but although Sunderland threw everything they had at the visitors, it was simply not enough to earn them any reward.

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