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City stunned by late Ji strike

Edin Dzeko was made to pay for several misses © PA Photos

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Manchester City failed to take advantage of Manchester United's slip-up against Blackburn, losing 1-0 away to Sunderland, while Everton beat West Bromwich Albion in the early kick-off.

Manchester City remain top of the table on goal difference after falling to an injury-time strike from Sunderland's Dong-Won Ji at the Stadium of Light.

The best chance of a subdued first half fell to Sunderland striker Nicklas Bendtner who, clean through on goal, dithered in the area and allowed Joe Hart to smother at his feet. Apart from that it was a case of the Black Cats sitting deep and absorbing City's pressure; the visitors had a couple of chances - Samir Nasri's shot was cleared off the line and Edin Dzeko was wasteful on more than one occasion - but Sunderland were never in a particularly uncomfortable position.

City could not spark into life early in the second period, and it took until 60 minutes for them to really test Simon Mignolet: Sergio Aguero shooting tamely at the keeper after some fine one-touch passing just around the area. Sunderland went close themselves shortly afterwards on one of the rare occasions they managed to get men forward, Stephane Sessegnon bamboozling Vincent Kompany before pulling a right-foot shot wide of the post.

In the final 20 minutes Sunderland looked to have settled for a point, showing little ambition and focusing on defending the 18-yard box. City very nearly punished them in the 88th minute when Micah Richards headed against the crossbar. However, it was City who fell victim to a late sting in the tale as Ji, who looked offside, took the ball round Hart and tapped in.

Substitute Victor Anichebe's late winner secured all three points for Everton as they moved into the top ten with a 1-0 win over West Brom in the first Premier League game of 2012.

With two of the most goal shy teams in the Premier League in action, it was never likely to be a high-scoring affair at The Hawthorns, and Anichebe's 87th minute goal was enough to seal the win as the Toffees extended their unbeaten run to four matches to leapgfrog their opponents in the table.

Both sides had struggled to carve out clear-cut openings before Anichebe struck, reacting quickest after Paul Scharner failed to deal with Tony Hibbert's cross from the right. The Nigerian pounced, digging out a shot to beat Ben Foster in the West Brom goal.

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