Croatia defender Vedran Corluka believes Manchester City owe their supporters a big performance at Eastlands tonight when they face Sunderland.

Despite the Carling Cup victory against Bolton in midweek, he is still hurting from the mauling by Chelsea.

Corluka, 21, is aiming to help City bounce back in the Barclays Premier League and record their seventh straight home win.

He said: ''We want to show everyone we are a better team than the one that lost at Chelsea.

''Hopefully it was just one bad day. We all felt horrible. It was a horrible display.

''We did not defend well as a team but now we have to move on.

''It was important to get that victory against Bolton after what happened in London.''

The Chelsea match apart, City have played some free-flowing, attractive football under manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Corluka likes the way the former England boss sets his teams up.

He said: ''We like to play the ball on the floor and people enjoy that.

''We have a lot of skilful players and our results overall have been good.

''No-one really expected us to be high in the table at this stage but I feel we can still improve.''

Corluka looks set to switch to the centre against Sunderland - Micah Richards has a knee problem - with Nedum Onuoha returning at right back.

That would not be a problem for the former Dinamo Zagreb star, who arrived in the summer for a fee believed to be in the region of £7million.

Corluka said: ''I partnered Richard Dunne against Aston Villa so I am used to that role.

''I am happy at centre half as well as right back and will play wherever the manager decides.''

Bulgaria winger Martin Petrov could return after missing the cup victory against Bolton because of a toe injury.

Eriksson, however, remains guarded about whether Sweden's Andreas Isaksson will retain his place between the posts and keep out Joe Hart.

''They are both good goalkeepers, who deserve to play,'' said the City boss. I have not made my mind up.

''While Joe did not play at Bolton it had nothing to do with the Chelsea result.

"We had decided before that game to change goalkeepers for the cup game.''