When Manchester City and Southampton meet is and an exciting and interesting match is guaranteed. This is why the English Premier League officials chose this match to be the main events of Saturday's football in England.
The Saints from Southampton will host the Citizens from Manchester in search for a huge surprise.
The home team is currently on the 9th place in the standings, 4 points behind the eight placed West Bromwich Albion, but also with two games less. Manchester City is having a tough battle for the Champions League spot because they have one game less than Liverpool but also two points fewer.
The home team defeated their direct opponent for the 8th place West Bromwich Albion in the last game, and they are heading into this match with high morale. In the last 5 Premier League matches, Southampton won 3 and had one draw and defeat a peace. Their form is improving, because in the last three matches they have one draw and two consecutive wins.
After 4 games without a victory, Manchester City finally won. Their game wasn't confident as it used to be, but 3-1 against Hull pretty much improved the situation among the players. They are a second placed team in the league when looking their record on the road and their games are very efficient as we saw 53 goals in 16 matches. It is interesting that they gather more points away from Etihad Stadium.
Manolo Gabbiadini and Steven Davis are expected to be available for tonight's match and that will be a huge plus for the home team. Charlie Austin will be unavailable because of his shoulder injury and Virgil van Dijk has a problem with injured foot and this will be a huge blow against an offensive line such as Manchester City's.
Among the visiting team, Gabriel Jesus and Bacary Sagna will be out like in the previous games. The main doubt is will the captain Vincent Kompany start this match because he is believed to be fit and the decision will be on Pep Guardiola.
In the last 10 matches between these two clubs in each of them, both teams scored a goal and Manchester City scored at least once in the last 11 meetings against the Saints. Also, the Citizens scored in the last 11 meetings in all competitions this year. Sergio Aguero is absolutely fantastic with 10 scored goals in the last 10 matches. On the other hand, Southampton has their leader player and that is Dusan Tadic. He is involved in five goals in his last 6 games. The Serbian midfielder is one of the best assistants in the league.
The tradition when these two clubs meet recommends you to play on a high number of goals. Over 2.5 goals will be a sure bet, and for you like to play risky, over 3.5 will be something that you have to try. Also, you have to play both teams to score because as you see this happens often.
As for the final outcome, we are closer to believe that Machester City is a favorite. They are playing good on the road, and Southampton isn't anything special when playing at St. Mary's