Manchester City vs Southampton: Preview and Prediction

Manchester City vs Southampton
England Premier League.
Date: Sunday 23rd October, 2016
Kick-off: 13:30 UK.
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Manchester United

Manchester City under the new management of Pep Guardiola has so far failed to live up to the expectations. They are currently on a four match win-less run in all competitions which all started with a sloppy display at Glasgow on the matchday 2 of the UEFA Champions League. They were surprisingly held to a 3-3 draw by Celtic then.

The following three matches were tricky ones, and the lost to Tottenham and Barcelona away from home, while were held to a draw at home by Everton. However they remain at the top of the Premier League table with 19 points, but the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea and inside the 3 point gap.

Southampton are quietly accumulating points in the Premier League and they come to Manchester for matchday 9 clash on the back of a 4 match unbeaten streak. They won 3 and drawn 1 of their last 4 league fixtures, keeping clean sheets on 3 occasions. They had a Europa League fixture on the mid-week in which they lost by a narrow 1-0 margin away to Serie A giants Inter Milan. This was their first defeat in 8 matches in all competitions.

Manchester City: Team News

Claudio Bravo is expected to keep his place in the goal despite receiving a red-card against Barcelona that cost Citizens the game.

Bacary Sagna is the only player out with injury, while Fabian Delph and Pablo Zabaleta are carrying minor knocks.

Vincent Kompany is available for selection and could feature at some point in the game, coming off the bench.

Manchester City: Predicted Line-up (3-4-3)

Bravo – Otamendi, Stones, Clichy – Sterling, Fernandinho, Gundogan, Sane – Silve, De Bruyne, Aguero.

Southampton: Team News

The club record signing Sofiane Boufal is back to full fitness and could make his debut here as Shane Long is injured and Nathan Redmond is yet to recover from a knock.

Ryan Bertrand and Matt Target are minor doubts, while Cedric Soares, Jeremy Pied and Florin Gardos are sidelined with injury.

Southampton: Predicted Line-up (4-3-1-2)

Forster – McQueen, Dijk, Fonte, Martina – Davis, Romeu, Hojbjerg – Tadic – Austin, Boufal.

Manchester City vs Southampton: Head-to-Head Stats

Southampton managed to earn a rare win against Manchester City when the sides met at the St. Mary’s Stadium on May 2016 for the 2015/16 Premier League clash. This ended Manchester City’s 4 match winning run against the Saints in all venues. At the same time, City won the first leg clash at the Etihad by a 3-1 margin.

Manchester City have won in each of the last 6 home matches against Southampton in all competition, 5 among them are Premier League clashes. They have also scored at least 2 goals in every match during the period.
Prediction

There is no doubt that Manchester City are in a mini crisis at the moment. But Pep Guardiola is a more than capable manager and we can expect him to get the team fired up for the Saturday’ clash. Southampton are no pushovers, they are playing some wonderful football at the moment. However, they haven’t won an away games against Manchester City in all competitions since 2004.