In a close game, Manchester City beat Southampton 1-0 to take the lead in the Premier League.
The other team ran around like they do a lot at the Etihad, getting more and more irritated because they couldn’t get the ball. The ball was thrown around like it was an exhibition. But Southampton had the ball here, and even though Phil Foden was mad at his Manchester City teammates for not pressing as hard as he was, the home team was ahead 1-0 and had the guests trapped in their own third.
After the Wolves game, Pep Guardiola talked at length about deep defenses and how hard it is to break down a team of 11 men in their own penalty area. When they were up 3-0 against Sparta Prague last week, Manu Akanji purposely kept the ball close to Ederson to draw a press before setting up a great fourth goal.
This was even stranger and more strange than before. It looked like Southampton was comfortably passing the ball around, but they never got into the City half.
It was a strange sight to see because City clearly wanted the ball back and were happy that they were so far away from Ederson’s goal. Another early goal was scored by Matheus Nunes, who was making his first league start of the season. He crossed the ball for Erling Haaland, who dribbled past Jan Bednarek and scored with a great half-volley.
Even though six players were hurt, City started up right where they left off in their rout of Sparta Prague. From then on, they played an odd game of cat and mouse. While Southampton waited for a chance, City watched for a mistake or a clearance.
City was winning that game because the action was happening closer to Aaron Ramsdale’s goal than Ederson’s. However, just before halftime, Jack Stephens set up Cameron Archer for a shot, but he hit the post. After the break, Southampton clearly felt better and sent on striker Adam Armstrong to try to score. Within minutes, Armstrong fired a shot at Ederson.
But City was also making more at the other end. Haaland had a shot cleared off the line by Taylor Harwood-Bellis, who used to play for City as a young player, and then he sidefooted a Savinho cross wide from a few yards out.
City got the control stats back in their favor, but they still couldn’t beat Southampton, even though the table showed that they should have no trouble beating them. Instead of being able to think about replacements early in the game, Guardiola used a 10-minute injury break for Southampton to give Haaland, Bernardo Silva, and Josko Gvardiol directions on the spot. The first substitution happened in the 87th minute.
City may have had trouble getting over the finish line because Southampton is a tough opponent or because they have six outfielders in the treatment room right now. The next few weeks’ schedule makes it look like City will just barely be able to stay alive, not really grow.
Being on top of the table on Saturday means that at least one of Liverpool and Arsenal will lose when they play at the Emirates on Sunday. This will help City sleep better on Saturday. They still haven’t lost in the Premier League, even though almost a quarter of the season is over. It will be nice to get their first clean sheet in the league since the start of the season, and their second of the week in all categories.
That invincibility will be put to the test very hard on Wednesday at Tottenham in the Carabao Cup. Guardiola already said he would take a lot from the academy, even before the list of injuries kept growing. If there is one game too many in this next run, Spurs is most likely to lose.
Still, the players do so much to win games—Haaland scores in the first minute, Ederson falls to the ground after catching the ball, and Akanji stops a counterattack in the last few minutes—that it is hard to bet against them. After the game, Bernardo Silva was sitting on his behind because he had worked so hard. This shows that City’s players are still giving it their all for Guardiola.
There are a lot of people in the city who look like they are thriving.
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