Antoine Semenyo scored twice and provided an assist as Manchester City survived a thrilling 5-3 victory over Sunderland to maintain their perfect start to the Premier League season.
The eight-goal thriller saw City twice surrender the lead before Erling Haaland’s late strike finally settled the contest.
Enzo Fernandez opened the scoring after nine minutes with his first goal since his £125m move from Chelsea, curling a free-kick into the near post.
Sunderland responded through Brian Brobbey, who finished after Enzo Le Fée split the City defence with a superb pass.
City restored their advantage when Rayan Cherki capitalised on a poor attempt to play out from the back before firing into the bottom corner.
But Sunderland refused to back down and levelled again when Le Fée found Thomas Meunier, who squared for Brobbey to tap into an empty net.
After a lengthy VAR check for offside, the goal was allowed to stand.
City eventually regained control and moved back in front two minutes before half-time through Semenyo, who produced a composed finish after Sunderland failed to deal with a cross from the right.
Antoine Semenyo then struck again shortly after the restart.
A pass from Marc Guehi intended for Haaland fell kindly to Semenyo, who drilled a left-footed effort into the far corner to put City 4-2 ahead.
Sunderland responded almost immediately, with Brobbey completing his hat-trick after Nilson Angulo squared the ball across goal.
The hosts continued to threaten and came close to an equaliser after City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma failed to claim a high ball into the box.
Ruben Dias’ loose touch sent the ball back towards goal, but City recovered as their captain hooked the ball off the line.
Sunderland were eventually put to bed nine minutes from time when Haaland slid in at the back post to convert Josko Gvardiol’s cross.
The goal was initially ruled out for offside, but VAR overturned the decision after confirming Gvardiol had timed his run correctly.
The victory sends City into the international break at the top of the Premier League with a 100% record ahead of the international window
