Manchester City have bounced back from successive defeats with a 3-1 victory over relegation-threatened Southampton at St Mary’s on Saturday.
The champions had slipped down to third place following shock losses to Crystal Palace and Leicester City, but they returned to winning ways in comfortable fashion on the South Coast to move back above Tottenham Hotspur into second place.
City did have to survive a brief scare in the first half after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg had cancelled out David Silva’s opener, but a quickfire brace at the end of the first half – including an own goal from James Ward-Prowse and header from Sergio Aguero – enabled them to coast through the second half.
Southampton had a clear sight of goal themselves in the opening exchanges when Charlie Austin was sent through on goal by Mohamed Elyounoussi, but his first touch let him down and Ederson was able to collect the ball.
It proved to be a costly wasted moment for the home side as Man City broke the deadlock just 65 seconds later, when Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva combined to set up the fit-again David Silva, who swept home a simple finish from inside the area.
Another slick passing move almost created a second goal in the 25th minute, but Southampton once again had McCarthy to thank for keeping the score down when he pulled off a brilliant save to deny Aguero from Sterling’s low cross.
Southampton’s improvement gave them the belief and confidence to start closing City down, though, and they reaped the rewards eight minutes before half time when Hojbjerg caught Oleksandr Zinchenko in possession before blasting his finish past a helpless Ederson from just inside the area.
That was only the start of the drama at the end of the first half, though, and a revitalised Southampton felt that they should have had a penalty with two minutes until the break when Ward-Prowse went down under the challenge of Zinchenk.
Referee Paul Tierney waved the claims away, and less than two minutes later Ward-Prowse was bemoaning another stroke of bad luck as he inadvertently diverted Sterling low cross past McCarthy, who could not react quickly enough to keep the ball out at the near post.
It was a hammer blow for Southampton just as they appeared to be getting on top, and worse was to come in stoppage time of the first half as Aguero ghosted in between two defenders to plant a downward header from Zinchenko’s cross past McCarthy.
The result leaves Southampton only outside the relegation zone on goal difference courtesy of Burnley’s victory over West Ham United, with the Saints falling to consecutive home defeats for the first time since September 2017.
Man City, meanwhile, leapfrog Spurs into second and could now close the gap to Liverpool to four points when they host the league leaders in their first match of 2019.