City not yet the biggest winners as Dias moment sums up chaos

The biggest winners from Manchester City's win over Sunderland were the neutrals, who were treated to an eight-goal thriller at a time when the other games on at that time could only muster one between them. This contest fizzed back and forth like a basketball match, with Sunderland scoring on three separate occasions within minutes of conceding before eventually running out of time to respond again with a final score of 5-3.

City's win also helps give everyone a fresh talking point for the three weeks before the Premier League returns. Arsenal were the team expected to stroll their way to another title yet their defeat on Saturday at Brighton allowed Enzo Maresca's side to steal the initiative and go three points clear at the top of the table after five games.

It has been a dream start for Maresca to have a perfect record after seven games, but nobody inside the Etihad on Sunday believed they were seeing potential title winners in action. City were sloppy from the start and were far too loose all game, conceding more in 90 minutes than they had across the previous four league games.

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To get it, it's a simple one-two punch.

This afternoon will be looked back on from a City perspective either as a sign of how much they improve on the early weeks or an illustration of the chaos that undermines consistency. Having gone 4-2 up just before the hour mark, it was a collective headloss from the home team that saw Sunderland pull another goal back and then twice come close to a third equaliser.

City can't play as badly as this and hope to challenge for the title: it's as simple as that. The sight of Ruben Dias spectacularly clearing the ball off his line was majestic, but throw in the fact that it was his touch that had sent the ball hurtling towards goal and it gives a taste of how self-inflicted City's problems were.

Some of their attacking play was brilliant, and they could have scored even more. Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo and Enzo Fernandez had their moments while Iliman Ndiaye was everywhere in the first half to force Sunderland into errors.

If that attacking talent can decide games, that can outweigh defensive issues some of the time and win Maresca's side plenty of games. The manager has promised front-foot football and if City get the balance right they could end up winning even more than the neutrals.

City should get better too. It can't be forgotten that they are in the early stages of a change with a new manager for the first time in 10 years and a revamped squad, and after so many players were at the World Cup the team weren't expected to start well so they are ahead of schedule.

Whether or not they can stay there and - more importantly - ahead of Arsenal and the other teams in the league - will depend on how City can tune up that balance on the pitch in the coming weeks and months. It is enough for now, even if such a performance raises questions that will have to be answered in the longer term.

Maresca cannot have asked for a better start in terms of results. He will know how much work is needed to build on that.