Southampton vs Manchester City

St. Mary’s Stadium

6:30pm

There’s no catching Manchester City, they’re head, neck and shoulders above the rest of the chasing pack, their luxurious win at Chelsea last weekend added credence to their title charge, give up now because the title is staying at the Etihad.

Give or take, it would be fun to watch at St. Mary’s on Saturday. The Saints aren’t exactly where they want to be but you see something in them that reminds you of the fact that they will struggle but will manage to stay up.

Injuries haven’t been kind to Southampton, Covid ravages the entire league and they can’t blame anyone for their suspension crisis, as long as they have a team to field, they must entertain but results are never guaranteed.

They beat Breantford 4-1 and you think they have turned the corner, then they lose 3-1 to Wolves and you wonder if they’re not going to be drawn into the deepest mud of the relegation battle, again it’s important to reiterate that they should be just fine at the end of the season.

Manchester City will welcome back Riyad Mahrez whose Algeria team underwhelmed at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations, the defending champions were booted out of the competition after losing to Ivory Coast 3-1 in their final group game.

How can Southampton stop the Champions? There’s no stopping this City except they have a bad day but the Saints can copy Arsenal’s template and garnish it with level heads and rich discipline, City were going badly against Arsenal until Granit Xhaka handed them a lifeline and Stuart Atwell followed suit.

Southampton will defend with their lives but they won’t have it easy against the Cityzens, they can trust their forwards to hug the line and hit City on the counter, whoever gets the nod to be in-between the sticks will have to be attentive, it would be a long evening.

City’s line up is hard to predict, Pep Guardiola rotates as he likes and you can’t fault him, the depth available to him will get other managers jealous, whoever he calls on will definitely do justice and make your day, yours truly would hope he doesn’t bench Joao Cancelo for FPL reasons. If you don’t gerrit, forget abourrit.

Verdict: Straight win City