Hits and misses: Maresca's Man City serve up pure chaos as Gakpo shines

Sky Sports' football writers dissect the action from a thrilling Super Sunday in the Premier League as Sunderland's visit to Manchester City contained an astonishing eight goals and Cody Gakpo proved his importance to Liverpool at Bournemouth

Man City's captivating but chaotic 5-3 win over Sunderland could not have been further removed from the picture of control so often associated with City under Pep Guardiola. "We want to control but the other team don't want to allow us," Enzo Maresca reflected.

Sunderland made command of the game very difficult, but City equally did themselves no favours.

Maresca had warned of the size of the task pre-match - and so it proved. "I knew how good they are, off the ball very aggressive," he added, after the Black Cats terrorised the Etihad. Rarely have City conceded so much territory or given up so many chances at home, nor do they often ship three goals.

Brian Brobbey served up another masterclass in hold-up play, just as he did against Arsenal last week. Except on this occasion he matched his physical presence with three excellent goals. Every time Brobbey won his duel against Ruben Dias - which was often - there was space to play off.

He was joined in waves of attack by Enzo Le Fee, before Nilson Angulo and Thomas Meunier swiftly arrived from wide. Suddenly City were overloaded. And it happened time after time. Neither Elliot Anderson nor Enzo Fernandez could get to grips with the physical battle, unable to cope when Sunderland pressed man to man or played longer.

City were out-duelled by a substantial amount, outrun too. Brobbey won 10 of the 12 duels he contested and drew a game-high five fouls. He could not be shackled, a clear winner of the tug-of-war.

But fortunately for Maresca, City were able to play Sunderland at their own game for enough of the match to score five times themselves. They picked on mistakes, digging deep to get the job done the anti-Pep way. Imperfect but effective.

In every single Liverpool game he has started this season, Cody Gakpo has produced a golden moment in front of goal.

A goal at Newcastle on the opening weekend, a silky assist against Nottingham Forest, assists for both goals in the win over Ipswich, another one and a goal against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup - but this intervention in the 1-0 win at Bournemouth was the best of the lot.

With Liverpool struggling for attacking influence, Gakpo's hard-fought run and cross down the right wing was vital in the build-up to Alexader Isak's winner. "The difficult part of the goal is from him," said Iraola about Gakpo, who is unfortunate not to be accredited with the assist.

But Gakpo also starred defensively at Bournemouth, winning more duels than any other player on the pitch. He shut down one of the Cherries' biggest threats. "I know Adrien Truffert very well and he demands a lot from you defensively.