City grind out opening day victory

Les Chapman.

SO THE Premier League is back, and the first weekend alone has just highlighted how competitive it's going to be as the season progresses.

There's going to be some real battles at the top, while most of the talk so far seems to have been about the managers rather than the players.

All the top managers are here in England now - Pep Guardiola, Jose Mourinho, Klopp, Conte - no wonder they're getting a lot of attention.

United and Liverpool looked very strong in their opening games, while Manchester City beat Sunderland 2-1 of course.

A lot of people say that City laboured to their victory, but there is so much expectancy here now, it's untrue.

With the players they've got, and the manager of course, City are expected to win five or six-nil every week, but it doesn't always work out like that, especially early in the season.

There are new players and the players who were already here will be having to get used to Guardiola's system.

There's pressure on more than ever now, but I thought City were worthy winners.

Aside from their five or 10-minute spell around when they scored, Sunderland were never really in it.

Sterling had a good game I thought, as did Kolarov at centre-back, while Stones looks a class act.

There's so much strength in depth at City, too, these days.

Looking at the players on the bench against Sunderland, it was frightening.

So tonight City are in action in Romania against Steaua Bucharest.

They're a top team in their league, but City should have more than enough about them to certainly get through the tie and make it into the group stage of the Champions League.

I suppose a draw would be a good result, but it would be nice to score a couple of goals to help with building confidence.