Manchester City v Southampton - The Opposition

Manchester City weolcome Southampton to the Etihad Stadium, where they will be lookign for a further three points to continue to keep the pressure on the league leaders.

The bues won a hard-fought encounter at Leicester last weekend, before putting six past German side RB Leipzig in midweek and the blues continued their rich vein of scoring in home matches.

They face a Saints side who have drawn three and lost one of their four Premier League games to date, with their only victory this season coming in the League Cup, when they put eight without reply past Newport.

Form

Southampton started the season with a 3-1 opening day defeat at Everton, before drawing their first home match 1-1 with Manchester United. Saints looked to be heading for defeat at St James’s Park, when Newcastle scored what looked like a winner in the first minute of injury time, but a penalty from James Ward-Prowse in the sixth minute of added time, rescued a point for the visitors. Saints then drew 0-0 at home to West Ham as their winless run in the league continued.

Danger Men

Mohamed Elyounoussi is Saint’s top scorer with four, howeve it is worth noting that three of those came in the league cup win at Newport. Armando Broja has two and Ward-Prowse’ goal at Newcastle was his first of the season.

Elyounoussi and Ward-Prowse also lead the way on the assist chart with two apiece, with the latter attempting the most passes (262) from five games, completing 233 which gives him a pass accuracy of 89%.

Who’s The Boss?

Despite suffering two 9-0 defeats in successive seasons, Austrian manager Ralp Hasenhuttl is still in the Southampton hot seat.

He has prescided over 118 games at Southampton, winning 43 and losing 49, giving him a win percentage of just 34%, the lowest from all the teams he has managed.

Last Time Out

City ran out 5-2 winners the last time these two met in this fixture. Kevin de Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez scored a brace each, with Ilkay Gundogan grabbing the other. Saints responded through a Ward-Prowse penalty and an Che Adams goal in the second half.