These are dark days for football in the North East. Newcastle United and Middlesbrough are in the relegation zone after losing on Saturday and Sunderland are in serious trouble after another defeat left Ricky Sbragia’s team looking anxiously over their shoulders. Sunderland have not won a Barclays Premier League game for six weeks and only West Bromwich Albion’s abject form is standing in the way of the possibility of the North East’s three biggest clubs playing in the Coca-Cola Championship next season.

Nothing went right for Sbragia’s side yesterday, but they can have few complaints about leaving the City of Manchester Stadium empty-handed when the sum total of their ambition was to try to grind out a point. City have one of the best home records in the Premier League — this was their seventh consecutive victory at home in all competitions — and Sbragia’s game plan was press, frustrate, hit on the break and hope for the best.

Sunderland were typically unadventurous in the opening stages and after George McCartney was sent off in the fourteenth minute, Sbragia’s team were forced to switch from “we’ve come here for a point” to damage- limitation. McCartney was dismissed for pulling back Shaun Wright-

Phillips when the England winger was clean through on goal, but the Northern Ireland defender would have got away with catching his opponent’s right shoulder had it not been for the intervention of Mo Matadar, the assistant referee. Steve Tanner saw nothing wrong with McCartney’s challenge until a lengthy consultation between the referee and Matadar sealed McCartney’s fate.

“I’m not so sure it was a sending-off,” Sbragia said. “There was some sort of contact, but our goalkeeper had the ball in his hands and there was no way that Wright-Phillips was going to get to the ball. The referee and the linesman ummed and ahhed and their decision has changed the game. Maybe the referee should look at rescinding the red card.”

Sunderland switched from 4-5-1 to 4-4-1 after McCartney left the pitch shaking his head, with Calum Davenport coming on to play alongside Anton Ferdinand in the centre of defence and Danny Collins moving to left back. Collins was getting his bearings when Micah Richards’s surge into the penalty area, chasing a clever pass by Valeri Bojinov, tempted Steed Malbranque into making a rash challenge from behind that resulted in Tanner pointing to the penalty spot.

It was a penalty but there was no need for Bojinov, the Bulgaria forward making his first start for City in 18 months after knee and Achilles tendon injuries, to chase after the referee waving an imaginary red card. Justice of sorts was done when Bojinov and Phil Bardsley, the Sunderland defender who was so incensed by the Bulgarian’s behaviour that he squared up to him, were shown yellow cards.

Just when Sunderland thought that a bad day was about to get even worse, Robinho decided to be clever from 12 yards and ended up looking stupid. A forward who cost £34.2 million is allowed to try a party trick once in a while and he is not the first Brazilian to have checked during his run-up when taking a penalty, but what followed was more Hackney Marshes than Copacabana. His tame right-foot strike was so bad that it rolled harmlessly into the grateful arms of Marton Fulop, the Sunderland goalkeeper, who should be ashamed of himself for celebrating as if he was the hero of the hour.

“He was trying to play cat and mouse with their goalkeeper,” Mark Hughes, the City manager, said. “My only opinion on penalties is that it is better to smash them.”

Robinho has saved his best performances for the City of Manchester Stadium this season, but not for the first time the Brazilian was upstaged by Wright-Phillips. The former Chelsea man showed no side-effects from having played for two hours against Aalborg in Denmark in the Uefa Cup on Thursday, when City had no problems with penalties, and his link-up play with Richards and Elano caused Sunderland so many problems that it seemed almost inevitable that City would make the breakthrough.

The goal finally arrived 11 minutes into the second half, when Richards got ahead of Ferdinand to head Elano’s free kick past Fulop.

Sunderland gambled by bringing on Djibril Cissé in the closing stages and switching to 4-4-2, but the optimism that was swirling around Wearside when Roy Keane spent £30 million on ten new players last summer seemed a distant memory when Tanner blew the final whistle.

Manchester City (4-2-3-1): S Given 6 - M Richards 7, R Dunne 6, N Onuoha 6, P Zabaleta 6 - N de Jong 7, V Kompany 7 - S Wright-Phillips 7, Elano 7, Robinho 6 - V Bojinov 7. Substitutes: C Bellamy 6 (for Bojinov, 65min), J Garrido (for Richards, 83), G Fernandes (for Kompany, 84). Not used: J Hart, C Evans, K Etuhu, G Berti. Next: Arsenal (a).

Sunderland (4-5-1): M Fulop 7 - P Bardsley 6, A Ferdinand 5, D Collins 6, G McCartney 4 - C Edwards 5, G Leadbitter 6, D Whitehead 6, S Malbranque 5, D Murphy 6 - K Jones 5. Substitutes: C Davenport 5 (for Murphy, 16), A Reid (for Malbranque, 72), D Cissé (for Jones, 72). Not used: C Gordon, D Yorke, D Healy, P McShane. Next: West Ham (a).

How Brazil forward is going backwards

Robinho provided reasonable value for money at first after his £34.2 million move from Real Madrid in August, but his contribution has tailed off markedly in the past couple of months. Yesterday he missed a penalty against Sunderland.

Robinho for Manchester City in Premier League

First 15 games 11 goals, 3 assists

Subsequent nine league games 0 goals, 1 assist