England Premier League
Sunday 5th July 2020
Kick off at 7pm BST
Venue: St Mary's Stadium
Match Preview:
The good news for Southampton as they head into this Sunday game with Manchester City is that they will be safe this season, so at least this isn’t a must win game for the Saints. Since the restart Ralph Hassenhutl’s side have fared quite well winning 2 games and losing one. Their last match ended in a good 3-1 win over Watford.
The Saints could climb a couple of places with a win and it would also confirm their status for next season, but barring a miracle run from one of the bottom three and losing all of their remaining games they are safe, they will know this and it is why they will be able to go out and enjoy this game.
Manchester City bounced back from their defeat at Chelsea in style by toppling the newly crowned champions Liverpool 4-0. True the game meant very little but at the same time it was the perfect response after a defeat and Pep Guardiola was delighted. It was also a timely reminder to Liverpool to watch out for next season, City will be back.
City will finish 2nd this season and will be using these games just to get their players up to speed for next month when the Champions League kicks off. They are 8 points clear of 3rd place Leicester and have won 3 of their last 4 games. However it’s interesting to note that City have lost their last 2 away games which is 3 from the last 4. So recent away form has not been good.
Team News:
Southampton: Sofiane Boufal will miss out again due to his ongoing thigh injury. Nathan Tella could be ruled out with an unspecified injury, the same for Yann Valery.
Manchester City: There are no new injuries for the club ahead of this game.
Southampton vs Man City Head to Head:
In the reverse fixture earlier in the season Manchester City won 2-1.
Manchester City have won the last 6 meetings in a row going back to 2017.
Last season this fixture finished 3-1 to Manchester City.
Manchester City have scored 14 goals past Southampton in the last 4 meetings.
Southampton vs Man City Prediction:
The best team of course are Manchester City, the problem is that both sides have very little to play for. But then there is the old adage that is associated with Guardiola’s teams- they never like to lose. That is why it is hard to look past City. If they fancy it, and with no disrespect to Southampton they could score 5 goals in the game. Although this could be a match where they ease into it.
With nothing to play for we believe this match could have some lethargic moments so it might be best to back more goals to occur in the 2nd half. This could be quite a close game, but we don’t expect too much incident at St Mary’s.
Southampton vs Man City Betting Tips:
Anytime goalscorer: Riyad Mahrez at 2.50
Highest Scoring Half: 2nd half at 2.10
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