MANCHESTER, England (AP) — No Pep Guardiola. No problem.
Not yet anyway for Manchester City after moving clear at the top of the Premier League on Sunday with a 5-3 win over Sunderland.
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Crystal Palace's Yeremy Pino, left, and Leeds United's Anton Stach battle for the ball during their English Premier League soccer match in Leeds, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA via AP)
Manchester City's Erling Haaland shoots during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo reacts after scoring third goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Liverpool's Alexander Isak, celebrates after scoring his side opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Bournemouth and Liverpool in Bournemouth, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo reacts after scoring third goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
New coach Enzo Maresca extended his perfect winning start to the season to five games and goes into the international break three points ahead of defending champion Arsenal in second place.
But that doesn't tell half the story of a chaotic match at the Etihad Stadium that saw City twice squander the lead and Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey outshine Erling Haaland with a hat trick.
Eventually it was Haaland who ended the visitors' brave fight with City's fifth goal in the 81st minute.
Alexander Isak scored his fourth goal of the season as Liverpool beat Bournemouth 1-0, and Leeds drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace.
Maresca’s 100% record continues after taking on arguably the most daunting task in soccer when stepping into Guardiola’s shoes over the summer. Charged with the responsibility of continuing City’s unprecedented era of success, which included six league titles and the Champions League among 17 major trophies, he has made the best possible start in terms of results.
But City will likely have to tighten up defensively if it is to end a two-year title drought.
Sunderland repeatedly cut City open, scoring three goals and creating numerous chances to add more.
City twice squandered leads in the first half before going in at the break 3-2 up.
Enzo Fernandez opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a free kick that curled into the near post, but Brobbey got in behind City’s defense to quickly level.
Rayan Cherki restored the home team’s advantage with a low effort from inside the area before Brobbey equalized for a second time as Sunderland again took advantage of slack City defending.
Antoine Semenyo drilled a low shot past Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs shortly before halftime and lashed home his second in the 57th to give City breathing room.
Brobbey completed his hat trick by forcing the ball over the line from close range and Ruben Dias had to clear off the line to avoid the game being leveled again with an own-goal.
Haaland's seventh goal in his last five games avoided a tense finish.
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
See AP’s full soccer coverage here
Crystal Palace's Yeremy Pino, left, and Leeds United's Anton Stach battle for the ball during their English Premier League soccer match in Leeds, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA via AP)
Manchester City's Erling Haaland shoots during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo reacts after scoring third goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Liverpool's Alexander Isak, celebrates after scoring his side opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Bournemouth and Liverpool in Bournemouth, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ian Walton)
Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo reacts after scoring third goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland in Manchester, England, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow, officials said Sunday, as the Kremlin was wrapping up the third and last day of its parliamentary elections.
Moscow’s mayor described the wave of drones as the “largest ever” drone attack on the Russian capital and said there had been damage to the Moscow Oil Refinery, which is among several sites that supply the Russian capital, and a residential building.
Across the wider Moscow region, the attack killed two people and wounded 20, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said. The dead were a 74-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman, he said.
Writing on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv had used a range of missiles and drones in the attack — including Ukraine's domestically made Flamingo and Pelican missiles — to hit oil and logistics facilities.
"These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine," Zelenskyy said, referring to the financial pressure that Kyiv hopes to put on Russia's economy.
Ukraine also continued to fend off Russian attacks, Zelenskyy said. A Russian drone strike hit a monastery in Ukraine's Kherson region Saturday, killing a member of the clergy and wounding four people, he said.
A Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital also killed two children and their mother on Saturday evening, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv regional state administration. He later said that another child wounded in the same attack had died in hospital on Sunday.
The attack took place on the final day of Russia's first wartime parliamentary election — balloting that has been virtually devoid of opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s policies and is all but certain to cement the Kremlin’s dominance.
Russia was also holding the vote in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began but still doesn’t fully control, and in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Kyiv has denounced the action as illegal.
In a Russian-occupied area of Ukraine's Kherson region, a Ukrainian attack killed a member of the local electoral committee, Russia's Central Election Commission said in a statement.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its forces shot down a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones across Russia, as well as over the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the waters of the Black Sea.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that 450 drones had been destroyed en route to the Russian capital, and that the attack had damaged the Moscow Oil Refinery and a residential building.
He said the “unprecedented attack” on Moscow was an attempt to disrupt the elections. "The enemy failed in this regard," he said.
Since Russia’s invasion more than four years ago, Ukraine has become a global leader in military drone technology, deploying domestically produced long-range drones alongside missiles for strikes deep inside Russia. Its drone technology has impressed governments and defense manufacturers around the world.
Kyiv is aiming to make the Russian public feel the war’s consequences and pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into negotiating a peace settlement. Putin has so far shown no signs he intends to stop the invasion.
Instead, Moscow and Kyiv have been drawn into an escalating duel of long-range aerial strikes as fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line in eastern and southern Ukraine has slowed, restricted by large numbers of drones and ground robots threatening troop movements.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that the Russian defense ministry said the total number of destroyed drones was 1,110, not 1,100.
Flame and smoke is seen rising from Moscow's oil refinery in the south east of the city following a largescale Ukrainian drone attack, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (UGC via AP)
A voter casts a ballot in the parliamentary election in Moscow, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
The damaged rooftop of a residential building after a Russian drone strike in Boiarka, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A Ukrainian air defense soldier gets ready to repel Russia's drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, late Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Flame and smoke is seen rising from Moscow's oil refinery in the south east of the city following a largescale Ukrainian drone attack, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, Ukrainian soldiers prepare an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, a Ukrainian soldier prepares an FPV drone to fire towards Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
