Manchester City travelled to the St. Mary’s Stadium to take on Southampton earlier this afternoon looking to bounce back from their 2-1 loss against Leicester City. The Citizens dominated possession early on and took the lead in the 10th minute courtesy of David Silva’s goal. The home side came up with a response in the 37th minute through Pierre-Emile Højbjerg’s finish from close range. However, Pep Guardiola’s team regained their lead when James Ward-Prowse diverted the ball past his own net in the 45th minute. Soon after, Sergio Aguero scored with a header to hand City a two-goal advantage at half-time.
Both teams fought hard in the second half but couldn’t add to the goal tally as the match finished 3-1 in favour of Manchester City.
Let’s take a look at how each Manchester City player performed during the match against the Saints.
GK: Ederson – 8/10
The Brazilian keeper pulled off a world-class save to deny Charlie Austin. He was also excellent with his ball distribution which gave City an added advantage at the back.
RB: Danilo – 6/10
He was a good outlet down the right flank going forward but lacked conviction while defending in his own half.
CB: Vincent Kompany – 5.5/10
The Belgian defender found it difficult to cope with the threat of Charlie Austin, but to his credit, he won a lot of headers and passed the ball well out from the back.
CB: Aymeric Laporte – 7/10
He commanded the City penalty box well and defended valiantly to restrict the Saints from scoring more than once.
LB: Oleksandr Zinchenko – 5/10
He was at fault for the Southampton goal but recovered quickly to set-up Aguero just before the half-time break.
CM: Bernardo Silva – 7/10
The Portuguese winger created some wonderful chances for City in the attacking third and was full of running at the middle of the park.
CM: Fernandinho – 9/10
The Brazilian midfielder was superb for City during the match and showed exactly what they were missing in recent weeks. He worked hard and protected the City backline quite effectively to earn another man of the match award.
CM: David Silva – 8.5/10
The Spaniard ran the show from midfield and played some outstanding through balls to carve open the Southampton defence time and time again.
RM: Riyad Mahrez – 6/10
The Algerian provided some good width for his team down the right flank but was guilty of squandering some fantastic chances in front of goal.
ST: Sergio Agüero – 7/10
The Argentine forward made some good runs behind the Saints backline and took his chance well before half-time to put some daylight between the two teams.
LM: Raheem Sterling – 6.5/10
The English international started the game a bit slow but recovered well to put in a fine display in the second half.
Substitutes:
ST: Gabriel Jesus – 6/10
He didn’t offer much going forward.
LM: Leroy Sane – N/A
The City speedster hardly had any time to make an impact in the game.
RB: Kyle Walker – N/A
He came on to provide some fresh legs in defence.
