Manchester City keep pace with league leaders Leicester City by narrowly defeating Sunderland 1-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Sergio Aguero scored the only goal of the contest on Wearside to take his season's Premier League tally to 13 - 12 of which have come in his past 10 outings.

The day after Manuel Pellegrini confirmed he would be leaving in the summer, with Pep Guardiola his replacement, City took an early lead when Aguero got on the end of a deflected effort from Jesus Navas to poke beyond Vito Mannone after taking a nice first touch.

Aguero curled just wide of the mark about 10 minutes later as City searched for a second before Joe Hart came up with a brilliant save on the stroke of half-time.

The England number one dived to his left to keep out Jermain Defoe's shot on the turn before following up to put pressure on Billy Jones who fired into the upright from a tight angle.

Hart was again called on to deny Jones' strike in the 78th minute before thwarting Black Cats debutant Wahbi Khazri from a corner as City held on to remain three points in arrears of the high-flying Foxes.

For Sam Allardyce and Sunderland, it was a third game without a win which keeps them well and truly second bottom on the standings, some four points from safety.

2015/16 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - SEASON SCORES

Sunderland: 0
Manchester City: 1 (Sergio Aguero 16')
Stadium of Light, Sunderland - 38,852