Manchester City vs Southampton

High-flying Manchester City play host to out-of-sorts Southampton at the Etihad Stadium in what appears to be a routine task for the home side.

Reigning champions Manchester City have firmly put their shocking opening day Premier League defeat to Tottenham Hotspur behind, winning their subsequent three league matches by an aggregate score of 11-0. A brace of 5-0 home league wins over Norwich City and Arsenal, coupled with a 6-3 thumping of RB Leipzig in their Champions League opener at the Etihad, suggests Pep Guardiola’s side are on course of retaining the title. Southampton’s visit should reinforce City’s title bid even further, with the ‘Citizens winning nine of their last ten top-flight H2Hs as hosts (D1) since a 3-1 loss in April 2004. Home and away, Man City have won eight of their previous nine Premier League meetings with this opposition (L1), scoring an average of 2.87 goals per victory.

In the meantime, since turning a 1-0 HT lead into a 3-1 defeat at Goodison Park on Matchday 1, the ‘Saints’ have drawn three consecutive Premier League fixtures. As a result, the visitors take the field winless in their last six league outings (D3, L6), spanning back to a 3-1 home triumph over last season’s relegation boys Fulham in mid-May. Since the turn of the year, Southampton have claimed just one win from 13 Premier League matches away from home, courtesy of a 2-0 victory over 2020/21’s rock-bottom Sheffield United in early March, losing 11 of the remaining 12 (D1). Additionally, Ralph Hassenhutl’s men have conceded 2+ goals in each of their last seven league trips (2.85 on average), hence their overwhelming underdog status in this showdown. Encouragingly, though, they’ve scored at least once in 15 of their last 16 league trips to Man City.