The diminutive winger made a big impression on the day when everything good about Mark Hughes' side was evident.
The £8million signing from Chelsea marked his second coming as a City player with a well-taken brace as Sunderland were crushed 3-0 at the Stadium of Light.
One time Black Cats target Stephen Ireland opened the scoring, but it was Wright-Phillips who stole the show.
Despite the scoreline and a comfortable finish to the clash, City were not always in the ascendancy.
In fact, the Wearsiders started brightly but in the second half their display was about as dismal as the rain-filled sky.
Things got so bad that many of the home supporters headed for the exits well before the final whistle.
Roy Keane's side looked to have the bit between their teeth as the game got underway with midfielder Grant Leadbitter firing over the bar twice in the opening ten minutes.
The hosts continued to press and rush the visitors throughout the opening 45 minutes without ever really testing Joe Hart in the City goal.
The lack of a real cutting edge was to prove costly as they fell behind to a sucker-punch right on the stroke of half-time.
Black Cats goalkeeper Craig Gordon had been virtually unemployed for much of the afternoon, but it was to get a lot busier as City hit on the break.
Sunderland failed to clear their lines from Dietmar Hamann's free-kick and the ball went out wide to Michael Johnson. His cross found Ireland who made no mistake from eight yards out.
It was a blow from which the Wearsiders never really recovered and, while they again pressed after the restart, they were out of sorts and seemingly out of ideas.
Roy Keane made a treble substitution on 60 minutes with Daryl Murphy, Anthony Stokes and David Healy replacing Leadbitter, El Hadji Diouf and Djibril Cisse.
However, this failed to spark the home side into life with the game already beyond them as, moments before, a quick-fire double from Wright-Phillips had ended the game as a contest.
The wideman opened his account on 50 minutes when a deflected cross from Jo fell into his path and he side-footed home.
Eight minutes later it was 3-0 as the tricky winger latched on to a long pass over the top by Michael Ball before clipping the ball over Gordon and into the net.
Sunderland continued to huff and puff as they searched for a consolation, but even that proved elusive as City and Wright-Phillips outshone the hosts.