Premier League: Beleaguered Saints Pray for a Miracle Against the Sky Blues

Manchester City vs Southampton

Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City head back home to the Etihad as they’ll host Southampton for their next match.

The Sky Blues are one of the few unbeaten teams in Europe across all competitions. Arsenal may be on top of the English top-flight table as of this writing, but it feels inevitable that Manchester City will be back on top at the rate they’re going right now.

In stark contrast, Southampton are in dire need of a positive result since they have one foot near the relegation mire. The Saints are currently 16^th with seven points and they haven’t won a game since the 31^st of August.

The pre-match SBOTOP betting odds have Manchester City as the huge favourites. But in their recent encounters, Southampton have shown that they can compete against them.

Talking Points

Manchester City have flipped a switch

Since the international break, the Sky Blues have fired 11 goals and only conceded three in their last two games.

Erling Haaland has been the catalyst for Manchester City because he was responsible for half of those goals. He scored a hat-trick against derby rivals United on Sunday and he tallied a brace against Copenhagen in their Champions League group stage fixture yesterday.

With 14 goals in eight games, Haaland is on pace to score 60 goals this Premier League season. Copenhagen goalkeeper Kamil Grabara said it perfectly, describing the Norwegian as not human.

Haaland is not the only one who can produce goals regularly for the Sky Blues as they still have the likes of Phil Foden, Julian Alvarez, and Bernardo Silva.

And when you have Kevin De Bruyne manning the midfield dishing dimes left and right, then Manchester City look virtually unbeatable.

Hasenhuttl under immense pressure at Southampton

Ralph Hasenhuttl is the Premier League’s fourth-longest serving coach at present only behind Pep Guardiola, Thomas Frank, and Jurgen Klopp. Through thick and thin, Southampton stood by him since he fits to their ethos of recruiting and developing young players.

However, the 55-year-old’s future has been dogged by uncertainty as the club owners are mulling about making a managerial change.

The Saints have had a poor run of Premier League 2022 results and their form at the back end of last term is also worth noting since they didn’t win nine of their last 12 games to end their 2021-22 campaign.

Moreover, reports claim that Hasenhuttl has been tuned out by some players, particularly those who don’t get to play much under him.

A date against the reigning champions certainly doesn’t help, but if he can produce a result similar to last season then he’ll buy himself some time.

Hasenhuttl has done wonders for the likes of Kyle Walker-Peters, Armel Bella-Kotchap, and Romeo Lavia – who was let go by Manchester City this summer – and all of them will play key roles this weekend.

Their top scorers are Che Adams and Joe Aribo who have four and two goals each, while James Ward-Prowse is another player to watch despite having a slow start so far.

History

Manchester City have only lost one of their last 12 Premier League fixtures against Southampton (W8, D3), although they drew twice last term.

Southampton won their first league visit to the Etihad in April 2004 (3-1). But since then, the Saints have secured just two points from their next 11 road games against the Sky Blues.

The Sky Blues are undefeated in their last eight home league games while scoring at least three goals each time. The last team to have a longer run of doing this was Aston Villa when they won 13 straight between December 1930 and September 1931.

29 goals in their first eight matches is an impressive return for Manchester City in this Premier League campaign thus far, which is equal with their own record back in 2017-18. Furthermore, they’ve already scored at least six goals twice this season alone.

Betting Tip

This game is for Manchester City’s to lose. The Premier League 2022 odds have them priced at 1.12 to win, while Southampton are the huge underdogs at 15.00 and a draw is at 9.25 in the 1X2 market.

While the Saints have held the Sky Blues a couple of times before, we feel that it’s unlikely for that to happen anytime soon since the hosts are firing on all cylinders.

Manchester City should have no problem winning at home, which will result to Southampton losing points yet again – and possibly their current manager.

 

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