Southampton vs. Manchester City
Venue: St. Mary’s Stadium
Kick off: 5:30PM
Manchester City travel to the south coast to take on Southampton in today’s late kickoff in the Premier League, aiming to open up a gap on the chasing pack in the race for the top four.
The Citizens returned to winning ways last time out and now enter a crucial fortnight in their season, while their opponents are seeking a top-half finish for a fourth year in succession.
Back-to-back wins and just the one defeat in six has lifted the Saints into the top half of the table, meaning that a fourth successive top-10 finish could well be achieved – no mean feat when focus was elsewhere during a key period of the season.
Thirteen points accrued from the last 18 on offer does suggest that Southampton are on course to chase down West Bromwich Albion in eighth place, though, sitting four points behind the side directly above them with a game in hand to play, largely thanks to last weekend’s 1-0 triumph at The Hawthorns that keeps their season ticking along.
With Pep Guardiola recently conceding that the title is now out of City’s reach, confirming what many of us knew a couple of months back, all focus is now on winning the FA Cup and nailing down a spot in the division’s top four.
Victory for Man City at St Mary’s today will not only see them move seven points ahead of Man United, who will have two games in hand to play, but it will also bring up 19 wins for the season – as many as they managed in the entirety of 2015-16 under ex-boss Manuel Pellegrini.
A far from disastrous campaign for Guardiola on the whole, then, but one that will be considered a real disappointment should results not go his side’s way in the next fortnight, with games against Arsenal and Man United to come in the FA Cup semis and Premier League.
The statistics may show that the two-time Prem winners are very tough to beat, particularly in recent months with just the one loss in their last 10, but they have drawn too many games – including the reverse fixture with Southampton – and may well be made to pay for it should they stutter in the final run-in.
Southampton Possible XI: Foster, Soares, Stephens, Yoshida, Bertrand, Clasie, Hojbjerg, Ward-Prowse, Tadic, Redmond, Long.
Manchester City Possible XI: Bravo, Navas, Stones, Kompany, Clichy, Fernandinho, Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva, Sane, Aguero.