A first-half goal from Phil Bardsley gave Sunderland a 1-0 victory over Manchester City in their Premier League clash at the Stadium of Light.

The visitors went into the game having scored 12 times in their past two matches and James Milner had their first attempt on goal, but his long-range effort was held by Vito Mannone.

The home side soon had their own opportunity to open the scoring when Sebastian Larsson picked out Steven Fletcher in the middle, but the striker was unable to direct his header goalwards.

In the 21st minute of the match, Sunderland took the lead. Bardsley latched onto a ball down the left wing after it was missed by the City defence, before keeping his composure and curling it past Costel Pantilimon.

City should have levelled the game soon after through Sergio Aguero, who headed Aleksandar Kolarov's cross wide, before Alvaro Negredo fired an effort past the post.

Negredo came within inches of scoring moments into the second half, but his looping header went narrowly over the bar.

The visitors came even closer to a goal when Aguero picked out Jesus Navas in the box, who saw his goal-bound attempt cleared off the line by Bardsley.

Sunderland looked to provide an attacking threat and Ki Sung-Yeung flashed a shot wide from the edge of the box.

Midway through the half Mannone was at full stretch to keep out a fierce effort from Aguero before denying a long-range strike from Edin Dzeko.

Dzeko again came close with a header that drifted just wide of the goal but Sunderland held on after late City pressure to record an important win.