Manuel Pellegrini bemoans latest Vincent Kompany injury

City brought on Kompany just after the hour, yet only after again conceding without him on the pitch when Fabio Borini beat Joe Hart at the near post.

“Nobody understands (how it happened)”, City boss Manuel Pellegrini said.

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling in action during the English Premier League soccer match against Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Saturday Dec. 26, 2015.

In that time City have surrendered top spot in the Premier League and failed to keep a single clean sheet. But form since has been patchy and momentum has slowed, with Monday’s loss at title rivals Arsenal their fifth defeat of the campaign.

“Vincent is not the best news”.

“I don’t think the score reflected the difference between the two teams”, Pellegrini is quoted as saying by the BBC. “I repeat that you never win the title in December”.

On his Facebook page, Kompany stated: “Today was a bad day for me”. “The first shot Arsenal had at our goal was on 33 minutes”. We dominated the game – maybe we were not aggressive but we had a couple of great chances and Yaya was involved in all of that.

“In the last three games we’ve gifted teams goals and found it hard to come back from”.

Pellegrini said: “I am happy that the performance was very good – we played attacking football, and I am happy with the individual performances. But I don’t want to analyse because we lost”.

Manchester City have had their evident struggles in defence in recent times and stats would suggest that has been due to the fact that their skipper and star defender Vincent Kompany has been missing through injury.

Kompany is finally back in contention for City, as are midfielder Fernando and right-back Pablo Zabaleta.

“If we can get eleven players playing consistently we will start picking up some results”.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the 62-year-old said: “You continue trying to have my answers about the future”. [Chelsea boss] Jose’s [Mourinho] dismissal is a testament to that, isn’t it? Manchester City could have scored far more had they been more ruthless.

Sunderland got a goal back on 59 minutes after Borini stabbed home at the second attempt.

He may not be blessed with explosive pace or natural strength, but this is a player who sees the game in vivid detail, who can lift his head and find an inch-perfect through ball or cross with the minimum of fuss.

“As much as you change the squad around, which is what I have been doing”. Even the most optimistic Sunderland fan has to be thinking the worst now as Sunderland’s position looks precarious. I did not want him to play the whole game.