Sunderland boss Gus Poyet was unhappy with how side gave Manchester City a way back into the game after getting back to 2-2, only to lose 3-2.
The first half was goalless and dull, but the game burst into life when Yaya Toure crashed in a ferocious shot after 57 minutes and Stevan Jovetic added another.
Sunderland hit back with quickfire goals from former City players Jack Rodwell and Adam Johnson -- the latter a penalty -- but Frank Lampard stole the show with a winner.
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."
Lampard might not have been playing had City not reached agreement with their sister club New York City to retain his services on New Year's Eve. The arrangement is an unusual one because of the close relationship between the two clubs but Poyet was not particularly concerned about the nature of the deal.
He said: "It looked to me last week that it was not possible (for Lampard to play) but apparently it was. How I don't know, I'm not an expert on the rules and regulations -- but he made a difference, he scored the winning goal.
"For me it's clever, it's smart. It's legal, so I've got no problem with that."