On Saturday, at 15:00, Southampton and Manchester City promise a good match on St. Mary’s Stadium, in the 14th round of the championship. Pep Guardiola’s team comes to the match without Zinchenko and Garcia, but the Spanish coach will have Sergio Aguero at his disposal again, who returned after the injury. Instead, Ralf Hasenhuttl has the whole team at the weekend match. We will see high quality strikers on the field!
Southampton is one of the most pleasant surprises in this championship. The “Saints” climbed to 3rd place in the Premier League standings (goal difference 25-18), having only one failure in the last five games. Thus, the team from the port reached only four points of leader and has no emotions at all regarding the demotion. Manchester City is in 8th place in the Premier League (goal difference 18-12), with a defense at an excellent level. In fact, even if Pep’s attack no longer has the brilliance of previous seasons, the defense registered a remarkable progress in 2020. The two rivals on Saturday are separated by four points, but the “citizens” have one game less played.
Last stage, Southampton could have won on the field of Arsenal (1-1), where it was tied and failed to score the second goal. That, although Hasenhuttl’s band had numerical superiority after Gabriel’s elimination! It was another spectacular Southampton match: in 4 of the last 5 stages played by the “saints” both teams scored! In addition, the white-and-reds have avoided failure again and have only one defeat in the last 11 stages – an absolutely fabulous course for Redmond, Adams, Ward-Prowse & Co.
Manchester City comes after an almost shocking result: 1-1 at home with modest WBA, which defended fantastically at the end of the game, despite the assault of the hosts. It was the first goal received by City after 6 matches in which the defense was the main asset for Pep Guardiola.
Next, City is a team with excellent ball circulation, and the statistics of the Etihad team are usually constant: few corners awarded to opponents, few outs, few fouls, many goals, many sutures. Southampton boasted a victory in the last direct duel, 1-0 on St. Mary’s. Before this game, however, City had won 7 duels in a row with the “saints”, 5 of them with a goal conceded. We see a new spectacular meeting, in which we bet on goals from both sides, in a balanced game, with a good rhythm.
Southampton: McCarthy; Walker-Peters, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Bertrand; Walcott, Ward-Prowse, Romeo, Armstrong; Adams, Ings
Coach: Ralf Hasenhuttl
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Stones, Days, Cancel; Fernandinho, Gundogan; Mahrez, De Bruyne, Sterling; aguero
Coach: Pep Guardiola
Manchester City have 7 victories in the last 8 direct matches played with Southampton;
They scored both teams in 5 of the last 7 direct duels of the two teams;
Manchester City have conceded only one goal in their last 7 official matches;
Southampton has only one failure in the last 11 league games;
Danny Ings is the best scorer of the hosts, with 6 successes. That Adams has 4;
Manchester City has two wins and one defeat in 6 away games;
PREDICTION: Manchester City to win @ 1,50
