Pell’s delight as City hit back

MANUEL Pellegrini was a happy man after seeing Manchester City bounce back from successive defeats to dump Sunderland out of the Capital One Cup.

City, beaten by Juventus in the champions league and West Ham in the premier league in five days last week, raced to a 4–0 lead inside 36 minutes at the Stadium of Light on their way to a 4–1 third–round win. It was the perfect response for manager Pellegrini, who fielded a strong side despite missing eight senior men through injury.

He said: "It was important to win the way we did today because we have just come from two important defeats. Maybe we didn't deserve to lose the two games that we lost, but we did, so it was important not to continue in that sense."

City went into the game without David Silva, Samir Nasri, Fabian Delph, Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala, Gael Clichy, Wilfried Bony and Kelechi Iheanacho, but Pellegrini is hopeful of having at least a couple of them back for Saturday's Barclays Premier League trip to Tottenham.