Primer: Manchester City v Southampton

Manchester City travel down to the south coast on Saturday to take on Southampton as they look to increase their gap at the top of the table.

Southampton currently lie 12th in the table sitting on 24 points, which is 32 points below the blues’ current tally, although City have played a game more. However those thinking this could be an easy game need to remember that when the Saints travelled to the Etihad in September, they held the blues to a 0-0 draw with City only managing 1 shot on target in the entire match.

More recently, Southampton have experienced a decent run of results that have seen impressive wins over Brentford and West Ham where they scored 7 goals over the two games , alongside a valiant 1-1 draw against Spurs. In their most recent fixture they fell to a 3-1 defeat away at Wolves despite a magnificent free-kick from James Ward-Prowse.

Impressively, Southampton boast the achievement of being unbeaten at home since the beginning of October with wins against Leeds and Aston Villa whilst drawing against Burnley, Leicester, Brighton alongside the results mentioned earlier.

Captain James Ward-Prowse is certainly the danger man from free kicks around the box. His latest strike against Wolves was one of the many reminders of the dangers City will face should they commit fouls around the 18 yard area. His set piece prowess has led him to score 6 goals this year and he is currently in great form scoring 4 goals in his last 5 premier league games. Armando Broja has captured the hearts of the Saints fans with a team leading 7 goals this season and bagged a goal in the win against Brentford.

Despite the goalscoring, Southampton have struggled at the back this season conceding 33 goals and keeping only 5 clean sheets. This should be great news to a Manchester City side that have scored 54 goals in their 22 premier league games so far.

Theo Walcott and Mohamed Elyounoussi could return for the home side after some time out due to Covid-19. However the Saints could be without a number of key players with Livramento, Smallbone and McCarthy the most notable possible absentees

In the last 12 encounters between the two sides the blues have won 9 games losing only once to a freak Che Adams goal that saw Ederson lobbed behind closed doors.

The game is on Saturday at 17:30 GMT and 12:30 EST