City's players send dressing room message after 5-3 win puts them three points clear

Manchester City sit three points clear at the top of the Premier League after five games, following a 5-3 victory over Sunderland that extended their winning run across all competitions to seven matches under Enzo Maresca.

The result was far from clinical — City conceded three times — but the outcome continued a perfect start in terms of results for a squad that spent heavily in the final weeks of the summer transfer window. Players left for the international break in good spirits, with a clear internal message: this is only the beginning.

“We just said in the changing rooms, seven or eight weeks we’ve been together now, so it’s not been too long, but we’re doing well,” said Antoine Semenyo. “We’re winning our games and we’ll keep improving. Everyone feels good. I mean, it’s where we want to be. We’re not going to get too complacent, too relaxed. We know that there’s a lot more games to go. And yeah, we just want to continue winning. So just have to keep going.”

The optimism is tempered by the awareness of what lies ahead. City return from the break with a trip to Anfield and a home Champions League fixture against Paris Saint-Germain — two fixtures that will offer a far sterner test of how far Maresca’s side have genuinely progressed.

Scepticism surrounded the appointment of the Italian following Pep Guardiola’s departure after a decade at the Etihad, and a 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal last month appeared to validate concerns that a dip was inevitable. Instead, City have navigated the opening weeks of the campaign with an unbeaten league record, even if the performances have at times left room for improvement.

The players themselves acknowledge that gap, framing it not as a concern but as evidence of how much more the group can unlock together. With hundreds of millions of pounds invested in the squad over the summer, the expectation remains that City will compete on every front — and the dressing room mood suggests the players share that belief.