Norwegian striker nets fourteenth goal of the season in 1-0 win
Manchester City defeated Southampton 1-0 in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, following an early strike from Erling Haaland, to send the Blues top. City were once again without Kevin De Bruyne, who was confirmed to be still recovering by Guardiola, whilst Jeremy Doku, Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish were also absent. Matheus Nunes started again following an impressive performance midweek against Sparta Prague. Phil Foden and Savio also started in attacking midfield with Mateo Kovacic taking the defensive midfield role. Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias, Rico Lewis, and Josko Gvardiol formed the defence with Ederson in goal.
It was a fast start for City, with the games only goal coming in just 4 minutes following a cross in from Nunes, which found Haaland, who fell back with the ball coming off his left leg to bounce it past Southampton goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale to make it 1-0. With the game having such a fast start for City and with Southampton already on the back foot, anyone would be forgiven for thinking that this would turn out to be a ruthless City rout.
This was not to be the case though, with Southampton becoming very condensed and organised in defence leaving City asking questions the rest of the game as the blues struggled to break down the resilient saints. Despite Southampton’s efforts in defence, they too had no luck in stinging back, with City dominating the game in possession to such an extent that Southampton never really got the chance to spur a lethal counterattack. This was the main case with the exception being the very last kick of the first half when Cameron Archer was through on goal and looked certain to score an equaliser, but his shot hit the bar and City were left breathing sighs of relief by half time.
Similarly, in the second half the game was overall dominated by the blues but still couldn’t net in a second. Haaland came close on multiple occasions and essentially had so many close chances that he could’ve left the game with another match ball, with a diving header blocked in the 55th minute and another header going barely past the post a few minutes later.
Southampton’s defence left them frustrated by some decisions as they struggled to keep up with City’s attack, with former Liverpool player Adam Lallana being booked for delaying the restart and Flynn Downes also being shown a yellow card for a challenge on Bernardo Silva.
A couple of attempts from Foden, who is still looking to hit back to full form in the league went amiss as he tried to score from outside the box, another chance for Haaland was intercepted by Ramsdale who held firm – but there was still no sign of Southampton getting anything from the game, with continuing struggles in attack. After a gruelling 45 minutes (plus 6 of added time) of the blues trying to secure another goal and determined defending from the saints – the final whistle blew and City had got the job done and went top of the league.
Although City will feel frustrated that the scoreline was only 1-0, they remain unbeaten this season with 7 wins and 2 draws and are top of the league with Liverpool being the nearest opposition in 2nd, they will face Tottenham away in the Carabao cup on Wednesday night before travelling to Bournemouth next Saturday. Southampton will overall settle for just a 1-0 loss at the home of the champions and will hope their resilience shown in this game will translate to results elsewhere as the season progresses.