England Premier League
Saturday 18th September 2021
Kick off at 3pm BST
Venue: Etihad Stadium
Match Preview:
Manchester City can, for now, forget about the defeat to Tottenham this season, it matters little and is a distant memory given they won their next 3 games scoring 11 goals to match. Indeed for a side who witnessed Sergio Aguero join Barcelona and who missed out on Harry Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo, City are not lacking goals. To go with the 11 scored in their last 3 league games they scored another 6 in midweek in the Champions League.
City opened up their account in Europe with a thrashing of Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig 6-3. At one point it was 4-3 and the threat of a collapse was on but every time City went forward a goal looked for the taking, it was one of those games. Goals give teams confidence and a player who fits that bill is Jack Grealish. While Grealish did well for his previous club Aston Villa there was always going to be some question marks over if he could fit in his game under Pep Guardiola, over his debut month with the club that has been answered with an emphatic yes. Grealish is scoring goals in the league, in Europe and also creating them, all is well in that department. Gabriel Jesus has stepped up his game in attack too and City have conceded just 1 goal in the league, it is worth noting that in winning the league last season the clubs defence played a major part.
That defence was in full show again last weekend as they beat Leicester 1-0 away from home. City may not be known for their narrow score lines but they had a plethora of chances on goal, were the better team, and let’s not forget how strong Leicester have been over the past 18 months which includes a couple of wins over Guardiola’s side.
Southampton have climbed up to 14th place after their opening weekend defeat at Everton but since then they haven’t lost any games and it’s been 3 so far. That is the good news, the not so quite good news is that they haven’t won any also and have drawn 3 in a row. The stand out draw for the club was the 1-1 at home to Manchester United and they should be applauded for that one. Draws have followed against Newcastle and more impressively keeping a clean sheet against West Ham who were scoring goals for fun in the first few weeks of the season.
The Saints will be the big outsiders here and the game plan will have to be to try and defend deep and frustrate their hosts. With a surprise win the Saints could be touching base around mid-table by the end of the weekend.
Team News:
Manchester City: Aymeric Laporte has a knock and will have to be assessed. It is the same situation for John Stones who will also face a late assessment.
Southampton: Stuart Armstrong is still sidelined with a calf injury and isn’t expected back for at least another two weeks. Shane Long coud make his comeback after a lack of match fitness. William Smallbone has had a long time out and he will be assessed but is being tipped to be part of the squad for this game. Theo Walcott has a knock that looks like keeping him out of action for the remainder of the month.
Man City vs Southampton Head to Head:
Manchester City won this fixture 5-2 last season.
Manchester City have won 9 from the last 10 meetings against Southampton.
Southampton’s last victory away to Manchester City was 17 years ago.
There is a 70% chance to see over 2.5 goals.
Man City vs Southampton Prediction
The one worry for Southampton is maybe not losing away to Manchester City but losing by a big score. The past two seasons have seen 9-0 losses for the Saints and they do say these things usually turn up in threes.
Manchester City really should have little trouble to get the win and the bookmakers are thinking along the same lines. They are not really backable with the prices being quoted so we will look into different markets. The goalscorers one looks obvious for a start. It will be worth backing City to get a few goals and they come into this game with no pressure on them and playing well and getting the goals.
With no disrespect to Southampton this game shouldn’t have City breaking out of 2nd gear and they should ease to a win. The gulf between the sides is so big at this present time that the only way City will drop points is if the players simply have a nightmare of a game, only they can lose this one.
Man City vs Southampton Betting Tips:
Half time/full time (Man City/Man City) at 1.57
Anytime goalscorer: Ferran Torres at 1.91
Anytime goalscorer: Kevin De Bruyne at 2.50
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