Sunderland boss Gus Poyet was left frustrated by their 3-2 defeat at Manchester City.
Frank Lampard, whose short-term spell at City was extended on the eve of the match, came off the bench to head the winner in the 73rd minute.
Poyet said: "The disappointing thing of the performance is after 2-2, the last 15 minutes, we gave the ball away too easily.
"It's Frank Lampard, we know what he does. He's going to arrive late in the box so we need to mark.
"We opened up the game completely and we needed our goalkeeper to be very good at the end to save us from conceding five or six.
"It's not surprising when you open up against a team of Man City's quality - we need to be realistic - but we gave the champions a decent game."